My plan is to let the chickens free range in the (fenced) backyard, keep them in the kennel at night, and give as many kitchen scraps as possible as they are apparently quite the little garbage disposals. My two pet rats are pretty much just that right now. They even clean out the inside of the canned dog food for me so I don't have to rinse them out before recycling. Sure would be nice to put that sort of effort into eggs and such.
I had rabbits for a few years and yes, I 100% agree. They are quite a bit of work. As much as I liked them, I'm not sure I would have them as pets again. My little mini rex female was pretty good, but the big dumb male English spot kept peeing off the side of the litter box (both were altered), which was very annoying. I'll probably be raising rats for my two snakes with in a year as my python is just about ready for them and my boa constrictor will be soon. Rats could also go to the dogs as well for the whole prey model. Though I don't mind humanely killing them first myself (mice especially), seeing the dogs eat them would be a little on the eww side for me as I like them as pets as well. Too bad the ferret won't eat frozen/thawed mice like he's supposed to as he's *really* supposed to be on a whole prey model diet. For the record, if anyone is interested in raising rodents for their dog's diet, rats have more muscle and smell much less than mice.