Originally posted by Randal Vimes:

I have a two story chicken "barn" with the top story well above the main floor. At the top are pairs of chickens crammed into little spots with piles of seeds. They drop eggs like mad!

I think I found your solution. Just don't do that! :-)

Seriously, you (I?) need at most one chicken a day, so my tiny basement chicken farm is easily enough for a 3 weeks. Actually, it's probably more than that, since I have other food sources like seeker meat that build up and I have to mix that into my diet, so I probably have chicken once every other day or so.