[glmeece]

We kept chickens at our last house (Austin, TX area) for about 5 years. That's the first time I had the "ah-ha!" experience of "omigosh - I've been eating plastic all these years!" I almost pulled the trigger several times to get a chicken tractor, but we just kept them in a coop I made.

You'll definitely experience attrition - whether through dogs, varmints or old age. Case in point - our dog at the time (a wonderful, sweet Lab) thought he was supposed to kill them. Our youngest son caught him in the act one day and "gave him a lecture" and he never killed again. Still, we had one taken by a hawk, another one mauled (and ultimately killed) by a 'possum. They also attracted other critters like racoons, although to my knowledge, they never killed any of our chickens.

TL;DR - IMO, it's actually great for the kids, and you'll never want to go back to eating industrial chicken farm eggs again.