Can't really add anything to the above - only add my vote for chicken keeping! I have six girls and they keep my family of four in eggs, my mum and dad mostly as well and some over for friends and family who visit. Last year for a while I was without chickens and the supermarket eggs - even the free-range farm fresh ones were tasteless in comparison. We do shut ours up every night in a little stone barn, though or the foxes would get them. We feed them layers pellets but I also cook up all scraps, veggy peelings etc on the back of the woodburner overnight - they love that!
In winter they free range the garden and eat lots of pests. From spring onwards, they're confined to a large run off the side of their house cos they eat the flowers otherwise! It is a very large run though, so I would still class them as free range.
K x