"Dear Katy, I stumbled onto your website the other day and loved it...Keep updating your website, it's great and a big help for folks beginning their flocks.  Thanks,"    ---- C.P., Carmel, CA

In the Jan. 2008 issue of 'Small Farm Canada,' our website TheCityChicken.com got a mention.  See clipping below:
 

 

From page 38 of the April/May 2008 issue of ‘Backyard Poultry Magazine,’ written by Katy Skinner . . . . . . .Raising Chickens in the City . . . . . .I am the author of TheCityChicken.com website. I started my website about 10 years ago. Who knew then that it would lead me to be interviewed by newspapers, The Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, and even be asked to teach chicken-keeping classes! The idea behind the site was to motivate city and suburban dwellers to try keeping a few hens in their backyards, because they’ll find it easier than they imagined!  . . . . .TheCityChicken.com is a simple website. I don’t know enough about computers to make it any more sophisticated than it is. Nevertheless, we’re still getting about 500 visits per day, and I am even able to sell a few ads on the site. About eight years ago, when my first son Bert was born, my husband and I bought our first house. Built in 1929, it was a fixer-upper, but had a big yard, andstill only 64 blocks from downtown Portland, Oregon. I enjoyed fixing up the house and gardening, and I knew I wanted to keep some chickens even thought we were in the big city. My mother kept a flock or two of chickens over the years when I was growing up, so I knew that keeping chickens was fairly simple. You just go to the feed store in the spring and pick up some day-old chicks. . . . . . Don’t worry, I’m not going to now tell you that I was naïve and didn’t know how much work chickens were; they’re not! There is no surprise here; chickens are easy and fun. As far as pets go, they are among the easiest you’ll find. Sure, there’s a learning curve, but the manifesto at the top of my website asserts just that; You, too, can keep some chickens in your backyard. Just go for it. In contrast, I would not encourage people to “just go for” buying a dog. Too many people already do that. Dogs and even cats simply take more time, energy, money and commitment than do chickens. The pages of TheCityChicken.com are peppered with reader’s feedback, telling me the site gave them the impetus to start keeping chickens.  . . . .TheCityChicken.com started out as me just wanting to document my chicken-keeping endeavors. All I did at first was take some snapshots and when they came back from the developers, put them in the scanner and then upload them to some free picture hosting space on the internet. Nowadays, I have a digital camera, but back then I just occasionally put up pictures of chicken coops I built, or a picture of my kids and I with the chickens. That habit very, very gradually grew into a regular website, complete with things like “frequently asked questions” and picture galleries.  . . . . .Does anyone out there go to sleep thinking about how to build another chicken coop? I do, and it works better than counting sheep. It might sound like I’m obsessed with chickens, but ironically, the opposite is true. I like chickens because they are a pet I don’t have to worry about all the time. Do you need to to take them to obedience classes? No. Do you have to worry that they will bite the mailman? No. Take them to the vet? Neuter them? Groomers? Licensing fees? Boarding kennel when you go on a trip? All no. Conversely, does a dog eat your old lettuce? All your kitchen scraps? Eat your weeds and bugs? Give you ferilizer for the garden? Lays eggs? No, a cat or dog does not. I’ve had dogs, and will get a dog again someday, but right now, I get my pet needs met by chickens.  . . . . . So let’s start with the very first thing a future urban chicken-keeper needs: Motivation! Many of the e-mails I get about chickens are from people who live in the city and don’t have chickens yet, but want to take the plunge. TheCityChicken.com is geared towards showing how chicken-keeping is simple and how getting a few baby chicks in the spring is not intimidating. For example, I keep my chick-rearing instructions down to one page in length, and suggest readers print out that one page and take it to the feed store with them.  . . . . Here are a few frequently-asked questions from TheCityChicken.com:  . . . . .Q.  “When you say you can raise chickens in the city, you really mean in the suburbs, right? One can’t raise chickens in a high rise apartment.” A. I raised a hen from a baby chick when I lived in an apartment once. It was a bantam breed and so only grew as large as a parrot, which people keep as pets all the time, and chickens can live outside. Except unlike a parrot, my species of bird would eat my kitchen scraps and give me eggs. I kept it in a cage meant for a rabbit, and it took up less space than a dog kennel, and I put the cage out on the patio at times. The only thing I would do differently is raise two chicks at a minimum, as one chick gets lonely. I personally think it’s not too nice to keep a dog cooped up in an apartment, and people do that all the time. It might mean a change of thinking, but why couldn’t city folks keep pets that are super practical and give them fresh eggs? You could collect the chicken droppings, compost them in a small container, and then put them in your planters on your patio where you are growing some tomatoes or flowers. That said, yes, it would be easier if you had even a little plot of grass to place your chicken coop on. And that’s why TheCityChicken.com has a picture gallery of over 100 pictures of small, movable chicken coops called “tractors” that would be ideal for the suburban chicken owner. FYI; in the UK they call chicken tractors “arks.” . . . . . .Q.  “I do like the chicken tractor idea, but they’d also need a regular hen house and pen, right?” A. In a word, no. My chicken pen housing situation evolved. I’ve used chicken tractors successfully but then tried all sorts of other ways. I used a dog kennel once in part because it was given to me free. Basically, you use as housing that which works. And that would be some shelter that keeps the chickens dry and relatively draft free, and predator proof. A chicken tractor, depending on how long you built it, could house up to 5 or more hens. Chicken tractors are perfect for city folks’ chickens, and a small one could house two or three hens; the number of hens I think first-timers should start with in a very small space. Chicken tractors are inherently predator resistant, and for chickens “predator” mainly means raccoons and stray dogs. I have had hawks swoop down on my chickens before but they can’t get in to a chicken tractor. In the country, some chicken keepers have had to string electric wire around their chicken coops, but in the city and with a chicken tractor, that isn’t needed. TheCityChicken.com tractor gallery hopefully will inspire your first coop. Be sure to park your chicken tractor near a window so you can have fun watching your chickens.

 

From the October 2006 issue of Sunset Magazine. . . . . . . .Great wine, naturally . . . . . .From cosmic forces to chickens, winegrowers embrace nature to make wines full of character  . . . . . . .by Sara Schneider . . . . . . .When the moon is full at Ceàgo Del Lago on the north shore of California's Clear Lake, things begin to happen around the vineyard. . . . . . . . . . . .Not ghostly things; rather, vines are pruned and wines are blended. . . . . . . . . . . .When the moon's dark, there's different activity. . . . .. . . .The wines are racked — siphoned off the sediment in the bottom of the barrels.. . . .  . . . . .The lunar activity isn't lunacy. . . . . . . . .It's part of the biodynamic farming system that Jim Fetzer, owner of Ceàgo, and a growing number of other winemakers are committing to, including Robert Sinskey and Quintessa in Napa, and Benziger, Quivira, and DeLoach in Sonoma County. . . . . . .  . .They practice biodynamic methods because it's the right thing to do for the land, and also because they believe it infuses their wines with the most vivid terroir, the Holy Grail of winemakers, the essence of the place where the grapes were grown.. . . . .  . . . .A full moon is a great levitating force: The power that lifts tides in the oceans of the world also pulls moisture up in grapevines and flavors out in wine lots, so it's the best time to cut back vigorous vines and make informed blending decisions. . . . .  . . . .And when the moon goes dark and Earth's gravity holds complete sway, the sediment in barrels stays put during racking. . . . . . . . . .As Jim Fetzer, owner of Ceàgo, puts it, "Would you try to paddle upstream when the tide is going out?". . . . . .   . . . . . .Biodynamic methods go far beyond what you can't do in organicland (that is, use no synthetic fertilizers or chemical pesticides) to what you can do to make a vineyard a fully alive, completely self-sustaining ecosystem. . .. . . . . . .Like making sure that many things are growing there, because biodiversity is key to soil health and pest management. . . . . .. . . .At Ceàgo, the vines share the property with lavender, olive trees, and other edibles. . . . . . . . . . .Crop rotation is also important. . . . . . . . . .But since it's a tad impractical to switch out grapevines, cover crops — fava beans, strawberry clover — are rotated.. . . . . . . . . . . .The fertilizer on a biodynamic farm is "green" too. . . . . . .. . .In the vineyards, some of it is dropped directly — by sheep and chickens. . . . . . . . .The Ceàgo hens live in style: They have a mini mobile home that gets pulled here and there, giving them a place to sleep and lay their eggs (which you can buy in the tasting room). . . . . . .  . .Combining animal and plant lives is key to a holistic biodynamic operation.. . . . . . . . . .The real science and lore of biodynamic winegrowing, though, rest in a handful of preparations applied at very specific times and some in seemingly peculiar ways. . . . .  . . . .For example, ground-up quartz crystals are sprayed over the vines in the morning to refract the sun and boost photosynthesis, and manure is packed into the horn of a cow and buried in the garden from the fall to the spring equinox, before being made into a microbe-rich spray.. . . . . . . . . .All of which seemed mystical to Fetzer at first. . . . .  . . . .The sight of someone stirring a crock of manure to pack into a cow's horn conjured up witches in his head. . . . . . . . .But now it feels like smart farming — working with the forces of nature rather than wresting crops from the ground.. . . . . .. . . . . .He still can't explain why burying that manure in a female cow's horn, during the equinox in the fall, creates livelier microbial life in the soil. . . . . . . . . .But the result is measurable. . . . . . . . .. .And the latest Ceàgo Merlot is more expressive of the land than ever — that part's tasteable. . . . . . . . .So why not dig under a full moon?

 

Article from http://www.azcentral.com/ent/pop/articles/0723chickens23.html . . . . . . . Keeping chickens in the backyard, by Denise Flaim . . . . . .Newsday. . . . . . . . Jul. 23, 2003  . . . . . . This isn't your grandmother's Rhode Island red. . . . . . . . . . Chickens, it turns out, aren't just for the barnyard anymore. Last summer, the Wall Street Journal christened the clucker "the pet of choice among some of the McMansion set," noting that in some social circles, it was the size of your coop that really mattered. . . . . . . . . And now Barbara Kilarski has demystified all things fair and fowl with her new book, "Keep Chickens! Tending Small Flocks in Cities, Suburbs, and Other Small Spaces" (Storey Publishing, $16.95). . . . . . . . . Kilarski, the daughter of European farmers, grew up in Los Angeles hearing all kinds of "barnyard lore." Eventually, she moved to Portland, Oregon, where she and her husband bought a bungalow with a thriving vegetable garden. One day, on a walk through her neighborhood, "I heard some clucking," she remembers. "Someone has chickens,' I thought. Why can't I?' " . . . . . . . . To Kilarski, the rewards were obvious: Chickens would strip her organic garden of pesky bugs, provide manure for fertilizer and lay fresh eggs. . . . . . . . . So, three years ago, she acquired "The Girls," as she collectively calls them. (Individually, they are known as Zsa Zsa, Lucy and Whoopee.) But first she did her homework - a must for anyone who wants to raise livestock in a nonrural setting. . . . . . . . "After making sure it was legal, I talked to my neighbors to make sure it was OK with them. Some eyebrows went up, but no one objected," says Kilarski, who notes that noise problems occur when roosters are brought into the picture. For that reason, many municipalities bar them, while allowing their less vociferous female counterparts. . . . . . . . Kilarski didn't think the hens would have a capacity for affection. And while they are not as cuddly as some of their furry counterparts, she likens her chickens to "big fat parakeets," with an "amusingly funny" streak. . . . . . . . . "While they're not wired for affection in the same way as cats and dogs, they sure do love you in their way. And while they don't give kisses, I find their complete trust in me endearing," Kilarski says, recounting her favorite PDA - poultry display of affection. "When we're out in the yard reading the Sunday paper, it's not unusual for a hen to jump on the back of a lawn chair and pull our hair gently." . . . . . . Her chickens are more subdued with company, she notes, "unless the company comes holding a big piece of bread. That breaks down all sorts of social barriers." .  . . . . . . . . "Keep Chickens!" is a thorough primer for anyone "thinking chicken," as Kilarski puts it. The book covers everything from the minimum dimensions of a coop to the recommended breeds for backyard laying. (Plymouth Rocks, you'll learn, are prolific in the egg department.) . . . . . . . Her personal obsession aside, Kilarski thinks cities and chickens are a natural pairing. "It's perfectly fitting, especially post 9/11, when people started thinking about quality of life and harkening back to simpler times." . . . . . . . To be sure, there are drawbacks to Chickendom. The cluckers can attract vermin such as rats, although Kilarski says maintaining a clean coop and storing feed in airtight containers cuts down significantly on unwanted visitors. Also, good-size hens can trample a well-tended garden, so Kilarski allows hers to range for a limited time - usually an hour before sunset, when they aren't tempted to dig dust holes to cool off. . . . . . .With a life expectancy of seven to 10 years (and sometimes longer), Kilarski's chickens are here to stay for quite some time to come. And that's fine by her. "They are a great source of conversation and conviviality," she says, painting a pastoral urban scene. "And I like seeing them floating on the green lawn, taking sun baths under the butterfly bush."

 
 
 
 

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2002/0120/cover.html . . . . . . . The Seattle Times. . . . . . . . Article, “Custom Coops”. . . . . . . .. . . . From penthouse perches to covered porches, city chickens are sitting pretty. . . . . . . . . . . . Written by Paula Bock, Photographs by Harley Soltes.. .. . . . . . . . . . . If I were a chicken, I'd want to live in Seattle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . As an urban chicken, you enjoy all the benefits of cosmopolitan Northwest living — without having to worry about the high cost of housing. (Poultry, here and everywhere, typically don't invest much thought in the vagaries of the real-estate market.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Overcrowding wouldn't pose a problem because a city ordinance limits outdoor pets to three per household. Even in a small backyard, that's estate-size space. Especially compared to the residential density endured by country cousins who are commercially grown and forcibly crammed into tenement squawk boxes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Key word here is Pet. Means you'll likely live out your natural life in a lovingly constructed custom home. Doesn't guarantee a Chicken McMansion, but sure beats the soup pot. (Castle du poulet trumps chicken cassoulet!) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Most folks who keep urban fowl say they raise the birds for spiritual sustenance rather than the meat. They find peace in watching their feathered friends scrabble and strut. They share organic eggs with neighbors. They take extraordinary delight in harvesting poultry poop for their garden.    This seven-part poultry compound near the Burke-Gilman Trail in northeast Seattle features a "chicken tractor," a wire enclosure alternated between raised beds so hens can weed and fertilize multiple planting areas. The Egg McMansion was built by Ray Nichol and his 12-year-old daughter Robin as a summer project. Even though they used cedar, a building material evocative of Northwest architecture, they designed the coop to look more like a thatched cottage in rural England or Asia.. . . .. . . . . . . . "Not to sound like a big hippie . . . but now that people are in this urban environment, they're searching for something to get back in touch with the earth," says Phil Megenhardt, city chicken instructor for Seattle Tilth. "I sort of teach it as a chicken-empowerment class." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Seattle may be the nation's only major metropolis to offer layfolks formal education in fowl fundamentals. In three years, Megenhardt graduated about 300 people from his course. This year's class, taught by Power Point whiz Amy Hagopian, was standing-room-only. If each chicken fancier went on to establish a flock and followed the three-chicken rule, that would add up to 1,000 chickens amongst us. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The actual poultry population is probably much larger since city officials, in recent years, have been too preoccupied with riots and traffic jams to enforce the chicken clause. Into this unregulated atmosphere, a profusion of creative coops has cropped up. . . . . . . . . . . . Perhaps it's because permits are not required for coop construction. Or maybe the hen houses are a reaction to the '90s boom of faux chateau boasting marble bathrooms grand enough to host G-8 summits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Then again, among the composting crowd, chicken coops may serve as a simplicity status symbol. Call it pullet prestige. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Several of the Northwest's most important examples of coop design are showcased every year in the Seattle Tilth Chicken Coop Tour, a self-guided stroll through urban hen houses. Notable coops include a traditional Cape gazebo, a modern condo topped by a penthouse, a Wild West Saloon and an architect-designed chalet with cedar framing, galvanized steel roof and hinged Lexan windows in classic four-pane pattern. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The luxury home tour, Street of Dreams, may give visitors an excuse to indulge in velvet voyeurism under the guise of looking for practical ideas. But the Tilth Tour offers even more insight into neighbors' intimate habits: How often they change their straw bedding. Who keeps a rooster on the side. Secret spots where hens prefer to lay their eggs. . . . .. . . . . . . . . Not all of the featured chicken houses are poultry palaces. Some nod to practical considerations, such as ease of cleaning. Others have an environmental focus. Several lean toward low-budget construction. A few just lean. . . .. . . . . . . . After their greyhounds died of cancer, the Nichol family decided they wanted low-maintenance pets. Joan considered goats (not enough room in the city) before settling on chickens. Ray and 12-year-old Robin took on coop construction as this year's father-daughter summer project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . With its whimsical notched shingles, this classy chicken compound echoes the thatched-roof theme of Ray's nearby toolshed, which has traditional bulging "eyebrows" over the windows as in English country cottages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "I didn't want it to look real Northwest," Ray says. "I wanted an Asian look, a European look." . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . Not only does the trapezoidal roof shape and cascading ridgeline lend a pagoda quality, the roofs are modular and can be removed. In fact, the whole coop easily disassembles. Ray trained as a draftsman at an all-boys British military school and is now a photography instructor at the Art Institute of Seattle. He designed the cottage compound in his head and built it with daughter Robin in about a week's worth of time spread over a couple months. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "I have no idea how much it cost, and don't care," he says. "Chickens could care less. But if you're going to have them as pets, it's not much of a leap to make their habitat something you can enjoy looking at that becomes part of the architecture of the yard, rather than an old doghouse." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chicken owner Ann Fittante claims she would've been happy with a modest shelter for her three banties: Fennel, Ruby-The-Rescue-Chicken and Little Richard, a black hen with silky feathered feet. But the coop's architect, Ara Tripp, became inspired during construction when Fittante mentioned the Tilth Coop Tour. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "Now, I'm obligated by my vanity to do something spectacular," Tripp said. She tore down the glorified (yet humble) dog house she'd started and laid a six-sided pedestal as a foundation. From that rose a clapboard gazebo made of wood liberated from dumpsters. . . . . . . . . . "The great challenge," she said, "was building up the walls without making the structure look too thick." Tripp ripped all the slats by hand. The coop is 5 feet across and 6 feet high at its peak. It has three laying boxes and a back door that opens to an airy 8-by-8-foot pen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "I wanted the pen so you can service and clean it without having to stoop," Tripp says. "If you want to bond with your chickens, you shouldn't have to stoop." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Artistically, the architect's goal was to unite three woodworking styles and three colors in harmonious conversation. The fish-scale siding cascades from a shingled roof offset with wide trim, beveled at 30-degree angles. The boards are painted a trio of blue-gray tones and the trim is traditional white. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total cost of materials: $65. Tripp figures she'd normally charge $500 for labor on such a project. (She was so buoyed by the work, she gave Fittante a deep discount.) . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . Sleek lines and brilliant design innovations are the hallmarks of the modern tri-level condo built by Dave and Pam Gronbeck for their Black Australorp and two Rhode Island Reds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tucked unobtrusively under the deck of their 1907 bungalow, the mostly cedar coop has an angular asymmetry reminiscent of '70s cathedral-style ski condominiums. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . At the main entrance, double-folding doors open wide enough to move in a chicken-sized grand piano. Despite the ample scale, the abode has a friendly rather than imposing face because of the door's kite-shaped windows.. . . . . . . . . . . Windows abound. The coop is sited to take advantage of afternoon sun through screened windows and minimize windy, wet weather from the south, where light floods in through paned clerestory windows. Portholes ring the home to promote healthy cross-ventilation. The cupola penthouse encourages the birds to stretch their wings for fresh air and also affords a territorial view. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inside, five different perches rise in varying heights and textures, including white PVC piping, which is soft underfoot and easy to clean. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Other thoughtful touches include scalloped soffits, a solid brass latch and generous use of old-growth lumber (salvaged from the owners' kitchen). A laying ledge and food and water box are conveniently set at waist level so you can feed the chickens and gather eggs by simply flipping open a hatch door. Food and water dangle above the floor, in buckets, to prevent the hens from soiling their meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "People think it's silly to do something like this," Pam Gronbeck says. "But I think if animals are going to be penned in an area, they should be comfortable. They're part of our family." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One day, Jeff Stein looked at Margaret Kramer and said, "We should have chickens, y'know." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . She said, "Yeah, you do it, and fine with me." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . He built a coop but it wasn't good enough, too small for Rosie, Big Mama and Mary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Margaret said, "That's not human." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jeff: "I know. I gotta build a bigger coop." . . . . . . . . . . The coop's tall false front has swinging saloon doors, a tar-paper overhang (for shade at high noon!) and, on each floor, two decoupage windows trimmed in barn red. The windows offer glimpses of chickens in shadowy silhouette, shades half drawn. (Margaret is an artist as well as a social worker.) Humans enter the roomy coop through a 3/4-sizedoor marked LADIES. Inside, there's a framed print of a rooster. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . He went to Second Use, an architectural salvage place near South Park, and bought an old gray fence for $50. He cut off the ground rot, turned the fence upside-down, and suddenly, it all came together: A Wild West Saloon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Wild West theme is echoed in a miniature saloon feeder and a covered screened porch annex made from salvaged materials. At night, a timed light in the coop gives the saloon a cozy glow that Jeff and Margaret can see from their 1908 farmhouse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The whimsical hen house is set under tall locust trees on a street with its own Wild West history. Until 10 years ago, the street — within clucking distance of the I-90 lid — was still dirt road. Five years ago, it was home to a horse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Now it has three chickens. "Imagine the coop in a dusty town," Stein says. "The chickens are strolling along, swaggering around, a duel at noon. They hang out, they chill out, they cross the street."

 
 

"Dear Katy...As another chicken addict and a 4-H poultry leader, I really appreciated running across your site this a.m. - very well done, helpful info and inspiring!  Thanks!"     ---- L.F., South Beach, Oregon.

"Dear Katy...I sent your site to a friend that has been wanting chickens also. I can't wait to build my first chicken tractor!!...Such an informative site for new 'chicken people.'  You are the Martha Stewart of chickens!"    ----G.D., Fort Madison, Iowa.

 
 

Following article from http://www.al.com/specialreport/mobileregister/?chickens.html, Chickens are useful pets...............written by BILL FINCH, Environment Editor of the Mobile Register newspaper of Alabama ...............It may now be safe to tell you that I have chickens. In the big city. In the deepest, darkest heart of Mobile. I'm telling you this now because I believe it's time for urban chicken raisers everywhere to come out of the closet and let the rest of the world know what they've been missing all these years. ...............I have chickens not only because it is the destiny and ambition of every Finch to have a small home flock, just like Grandma did so many years ago in Mobile, but also because I've discovered that home-raised chickens are an indispensable part of my garden, and their exceptionally rich eggs are an invaluable addition to my diet. ......   .........They're much quieter (and make less of a mess) than my dogs, they're much less trouble than my finicky cats, and I've grown rather fond of them, as often happens when people are around chickens for any length of time. ...............I suspect many of you have briefly considered keeping a little Easter chick as a pet, but assumed that it was illegal to do so in the big city. ...............True, some cities, like Fairhope, ban chickens altogether, for whatever threat to public safety they may pose there. ...............But older, long-settled communities like Mobile -- communities that grew up with chickens, that are familiar enough with the habits of chickens to know they're no more a threat to the public than the jays, cardinals and other birds we tolerate and even encourage around our homes -- have always allowed home flocks, with some minor restrictions (in Mobile, a homeowner can have 25 hens within the confines of his yard, though roosters are forbidden if the neighbors complain). ...............The trouble with chickens : ...............But why would anyone want to have chickens as backyard pets? ...............Well, why wouldn't you? They are more easily trained than a cat, have a lot more personality than a cocker spaniel, and many home-grown birds are quite affectionate, seeking out their human owners for a sign of attention or a back rub. ...............The five cochin bantams I used to have followed me around the yard like a pack of puppies, crawling in my lap and clucking until I delivered another worm. .......    ........One of them, Danielle, was brought inside in a cat carrier for a few nights to recuperate from a mauling by an opossum. She remains insistent that the cat carrier is her bedroom, and if we don't come fetch her at dusk, she climbs out of her coop, waddles across the yard, and knocks at the back door until we let her in. (It was Danielle who posed so patiently for the pictures in this article: I believe I could train her to fetch, if I saw any purpose in doing so.) ...............Many people keep chickens just because they're beautiful, as pretty as some of the rare, exotic birds we snatch directly from South American jungles. It's hard to imagine a bird with more exotic and colorful foliage than the old English game or Dutch bantams, though some will prefer the checkerboard pattern of the Dominiques, the unusual baked gold of the Sicilian buttercups, or the lustrous blue-black of a proud Andalusian. ...............But it's the irony of modern life that chickens are sometimes disparaged as pets because they're so -- well -- useful. ...............In this modern world, the more verifiably useless an animal is, the better chance it has of being accepted widely as a pet. Working dogs never seem to enjoy much popularity until the American Kennel Club manages to turn them into neurotic living room ornaments (no, I don't mean to single out golden retrievers or chocolate labs). Modern cats have no responsibilities in their households, and take none for the capricious damage they do. ...............Somehow, it's socially acceptable to watch a bored turtle making desperate circles in a glass bowl for its entire existence. It's OK to have a squawking pair of parakeets that have no purpose in life but to scatter seed all over the kitchen floor. We even seem to prefer useless gardens: An azalea in your yard is fine, no matter how ragged it looks, but as soon as neighbors find out that those beautiful reddish-green leaves in your front bed are actually edible heads of lettuce, they're going to call the garden police. ...............And so the chicken has this terrible strike against it: It is so invariably, so incontrovertibly, useful. ...............It's not just that some folks eat chickens fairly regularly, and don't like coming face to face with the creatures they consume. Lots of people eat fish, too, but there's no great prejudice against keeping fish. ...............What makes the chicken an especially suspicious pet is that nearly every aspect of its life is useful to its owner. ...............Chickens, for example, are the most terrifying weeders you could ever employ. Whenever I have a section of the yard that is a hopeless tangle of blackberries and rough grasses, I leave my chickens to scratch it up. Within a few days, it's tilled and ready for planting, with not a weed, seed or root in sight (take note, those who complain about rattlesnake root). ...............And they leave it nicely fertilized, too. Chicken fertilizer, as you probably know, is ideal for vegetable and flower gardens. It doesn't foster the kind of human diseases that dog and cat poop can, it has a nice balance of nutrients, and unlike cow or horse manure, it doesn't contain a lot of weed seeds. The chickens till it into the ground just right, so there's no odor. ...............A yard with chickens, I'll have to confess, is going to be almost completely devoid of pesky bugs like ticks and palmetto bugs. Chickens are voracious insect eaters, and I turn them out into the overmature vegetable garden to clean up the armyworms and cutworms, the Mexican bean beetles and the slugs. ...............I could tell you horror stories about how quickly a few scratching chickens can make rich compost of a pile of leaves, how adept chickens are at finding grubs, mole crickets and termite tunnels, how good collards and tomatoes taste when grown in chicken-fed soil. .....   ..........But nothing about a backyard chicken's usefulness will offend modern sensibilities more than the bird's propensity for producing eggs. Not just any eggs, but the most alarmingly flavorful eggs you'll ever eat, a hundred or more per bird per year. ...............I should warn you, yard eggs taste nothing like grocery store eggs. There's a rich, almost buttery taste to a good yard egg. You'll notice the taste fried, scrambled or souffled. You'll detect the difference in your casseroles, your cornbread, your eggnogs, your homemade custard ice cream. ...............And then there's the color of the yard egg's yolk. It'll take some getting used to if you've grown accustomed to the pale yellow grocery store variety. ...............I knew cooks when I was growing up who would drive miles to get fresh yard eggs for their cakes. The deep orange yolks of the yard eggs were the secret ingredient in your grandmother's golden pound cakes; those anemic grocery store eggs you're using are why your pound cake has never come close. ...............And wouldn't you know it, it's the infernal usefulness of the yard chicken that makes its eggs so sought after. The deep orange color, the rich flavor -- you'll only get that from chickens allowed to scratch their way through the weeds, bugs and sunshine of a back yard. Commercially raised chickens never come in contact with good earth, and their eggs are as bland and colorless as their processed feed diet.      .    Ah, country life : ...............The irony is, if you want the taste of the country life that only chickens can afford, you'll have a hard time finding it in the new communities that have recently sprawled over the countryside. ...............Many of these communities are quite explicit in their rejection of chickens. ...............Fairhope and Daphne residents, for example, will have to entertain themselves with less useful animals like dogs, cats, cobras, tigers or wolves: Animal control officers say these aren't prohibited, but under no circumstance may you keep a chicken in those cities. In Gulf Shores, to take the most extreme case, they apparently don't want you to have anything other than your poodle, your puss and your pension fund. ...............Oddly enough, it's the older, more settled cities that seem to be more appreciative of the merits of having useful household animals like chickens. Even Alabama's richest community, Mountain Brook, seems to have no problems with keeping chickens as pets. ...............Mountain Brook, as many older communities do, makes all birds subject to the same laws that govern the keeping of dogs and cats: Their cages and pens must be clean; they aren't allowed to roam freely on neighbor's properties; and loud, incessant barking, crowing and caterwauling is prohibited by the city's noise ordinances, regardless of the type of animal that produces it. ...............Instead of regulating chickens, Mountain Brook's city council decided it was more important to prohibit the keeping of non-domestic animals like raccoons, cougars, and bears, animal control officers say. (Don't laugh: You'd be surprised at the animals lurking, quite legally, in some back yards.) ...............There's really no threat of someone slyly turning a back yard into a for-profit chicken factory. Cities that want to discourage the willy-nilly for-profit production of chickens will find that the possibility has already been stamped out by tough food laws that require elaborate equipment and permits for those who sell eggs and meat. ...............So why are chickens singled out in the newer, fast-growing bedroom communities like Daphne and Fairhope? ...............Perhaps, having so recently escaped their rural status, these communities feel   a need to work extra hard to prove that they are not just a country crossroads anymore. A chicken may remind residents that they are only a generation removed from the rural life of their Alabama grandmothers. ...............The gated rural suburbs, with their extensive lists of covenant do's and don'ts, are even more restrictive than the new cities. ...............So there's good reason to believe that the last stronghold of home chicken-raising in Alabama might be in its older city centers, where most neighbors are sophisticated enough to cultivate a small-town atmosphere, sharing sugar, mild gossip and fresh eggs across the fence. ...............At least that's the way it is in the older neighborhoods of my big small town of Mobile. There are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of bird owners -- some rich and well-known, some just getting by -- within the city limits. You'd never really know the birds were there, unless you were lucky enough to be given some eggs. ...............But as a local bird lover points out, it's telling that one of the last grocery stores in Mobile to carry a wide selection of chicken feeds is Namans, on the edge of downtown. And sometimes, when the deafening roar of commuter traffic headed for the rural suburbs subsides, you can hear, softly in the distance, a hen cackling proudly over her fresh-laid egg.

 
 
 

The following article was printed in the Jan. 8th, 2004 issue of The Oregonian. Afowl of the Law: A ban on chickens forces a Gresham resident to give up her brood. By Nancy Woods. Is Gresham ahead of or behind the times when it comes to raising chickens in the city? Is Portland more chicken friendly? Until recently, Jan Apland-Curtis, a Gresham resident, had five hens and one rooster in her yard but a complaint from a neighbor meant that she had to find a new home for her rooster and two hens. Apland-Curtis didn't even mean to have a rooster. She thought all her original chicks were female. By the time it became obvious one was a rooster, he'd become a beloved member of the family. "We raised him from a chick and were all attached to him," said Apland-Curtis, a nutritionist for Multnomah County who lives with her husband and two sons. "He was our favorite chicken and we thought we would try to make it work." By giving up the rooster along with his two favorite hens, Apland-Curtis hoped the problem would be solved, that she wouldn't hear anything further from the city of Gresham.    After all, it was the rooster who made the most noise. But one day she and her family returned from a camping trip to find a notice from the city of Gresham telling her she had two weeks to get rid of the remaining chickens, too. To Apland-Curtis it didn't make sense. "Most cities allow chickens," she said, "so why not Gresham? Gresham used to be farmland." Besides, she said, chickens aren't that smelly and they're quieter than dogs. "We get a chicken complaint at least twice a week," said Jody Sandstrom, code enforcement program manager for the city of Gresham. Sandstrom said he and his staff look at things on a case-by-case basis and try to make sure they "take care of not only the person making the complaint but also the violator, so they understand why they need to remove the chickens or poultry." According to current code, chickens are not allowed in Gresham unless they are grandfathered in, which means they have to have been on the property before 1992 when the current code went into effect. In addition, if you do have chickens, they must be kept at least 100 feet from any structure, including your neighbor's house. Development is one reason that Sandstrom is receiving so many chicken calls. If a new subdivision wraps around a piece of property, he said, that enclosed land falls into the new subdivision regulations, so its owner may have to remove any chickens. "Each time we annex anything," he said, and "start taking in the farm land, it has a major impact on what we do." When development takes place, he said, new residents find themselves "next door to people who are raising pigs, chickens, goats. That's the kind of complaints we're getting into." The problem is also cultural. In some countries, city chickens are quite common. "Russians and Laotians and Hispanics - it's normal to do in their country," Sandstrom said, "but in the United States you can't." Well, not in Gresham anyway - where you can have a pot-bellied pig. "   Pot-bellied pigs are okay because they're considered a pet," Sandstrom said. What has come to be called the pot-bellied pig exemption was added onto the development code during what Sandstrom refers to as the "pot-bellied pig phenomenon." Citizens petitioned the planning department to make the changes. Could a chicken exemption be added in the same way? "That's a possibility," Sandstrom said. Citizens "have the right to petition for a code change and run it through process." Meanwhile, not far from Apland-Curtis's chicken-less house, Jude Foster is raising seven layers on her Southeast Portland lot. "Chickens are great," she said. "They're organic. They're real peaceful. They're a simple, urban-friendly way of living more naturally. They do this circle -- they give you eggs, they give you manure, they eat scraps. And I love them." Even for a busy person like Foster, who is director of Harmony Montessori in Portland, raising chickens is very doable. "They don't need a lot of time and attention," she said, "Once you get them set up, "they're very low maintenance." They don't have to smell, either. "If you're careful and take good care of your chickens," Foster said, "there's nothing to offend. They're pleasant to have around. The secret to keeping a clean chicken coop is to divide the area where they roost from where they walk." When it comes to smelly chickens in Multnomah County, Dave Thomson is the man to call. Thomson is the code enforcement officer for Multnomah County. In Portland, chickens are considered specified animals, along with ducks, rabbits and pygmy goats. A total of three or less of any of those animals is allowed. More than three and a one-time $31 permit is required. Because of the noise they make, roosters are not allowed. Since July 2003, Thomson's department has received 63 chicken- and rooster-related complaints. "It's mainly a tossup between odor and sanitary concerns," Thomson said, although there have also been a number of calls about chickens getting loose. That was the case on a recent day in November when Thomas visited several Portland homes to follow up on chicken and rooster complaints. At one, pigeons, chickens and a rooster had wandered into the street. At another, chickens had escaped and gotten into a neighbor's yard. Whatever the complaint, Thomson tries to resolve it peacefully. "My particular style is to resolve it on a friendly neighborly basis. I'm not the heavy handed type." If someone is defiant or stubborn, he said, his department will issue a warning notice that includes information on what animals are allowed and an explanation of the permit process. If the resident doesn't comply, a fine of $100 per day can be imposed for each day in violation. According to Thomson, in the future the permit fee may be raised though he couldn't say exactly when or by how much. Meanwhile, he enjoys the problem-solving aspects of his job. "A lot of times people don't realize that there is somebody who takes care of these types of problems," he said. "It's kind of fun to resolve neighborhood conflicts. When they finally discover us and they get results it's very satisfying. I take great satisfaction and pride in taking care of this." Jude Foster hasn't had any complaints from her neighbors and obviously enjoys her hens, which represent several breeds: Ameracauna, Silver-laced Wyandotte, Golden sex-link, Barred Rock, Rhode Island Red and New Hampshire Red. She gives them nicknames like Lemon, Maya and Henny Penny and appreciates the four to six eggs a day they provide. "They're interesting," she said, "and entertaining. It's fun to watch them scratch around. They have different personalities." One of hers is timid while another jumps up to get fed. But they're not your typical pet. Foster's hens, for instance, don't like to be picked up. "They're not mammals," she said. They don't adore their owners or anything like that. They're not super tame. They have their own life." A spoiled life, as it turns out. Foster lets her hens run loose in her yard where they peck and scratch and rid the area of slugs. She feeds them organic feed and built them an elaborate coop that includes a special egg-laying room with curtain and pull-open roof for retrieval, roosting and walking areas, and special back door for removal of droppings. Outside, the hens have a generous, hay-strewn space in which to walk about. The only thing that would be nicer than their comfortable coop, Foster said, would be roaming free in the country. "This is luxurious. This is a chicken palace," she said. In contrast, Katy Skinner prides herself on being a practical chicken fancier. She likes to build coops "on the cheap." She's made at least one out of pallet wood and another out of a dog kennel. Right now, her six chickens live in an old storage shed to which she applied some paint. Skinner, a stay-at-home mom, lives with her husband and two young sons on a quarter-acre lot in East Portland where she raises several kinds of hens - Ameraucana (also known as Easter egg chickens), Rhode Island Red, Buff Orpington and Australorp. All together the hens produce between three and four eggs a day. Skinner likes being practical.  Even as a child growing up on three acres in Sandy, Skinner viewed the family chickens as "infinitely practical. They give you eggs. They are a pet that gives you something back." As an adult she finds them compatible with raising her children -- son Bert helps gather the eggs -- and easier to have than a dog which, she explained, you have to entertain and take to obedience class. "Chickens are much less demanding," Skinner said. Once you get the coop set up, "they're kind of self sustaining." There is a downside to having chickens. Every so often Skinner has had to euthanize a sick chicken. And, even in the city, there's an on-going problem with predators. "People will swear they don't have raccoon or hawks," Skinner said "but the second you have chickens they'll come out of the woodwork.   The hawks come swooping down. I've had raccoons eat my chickens, dogs eat my chickens and hawks try to get my chickens." Suggestions on how to build a predator-safe coop and lots of other advice on raising urban chickens can be found on Skinner's fun, friendly, photo-filled and, yes, practical website www.thecitychicken.com. She started the website 10 years ago and now gets 500 hits a day from across the country and as far away as England and Australia. People contact Skinner through her website to ask her questions about chickens. Some wonder whether urban chickens are pets. "They can be thought of livestock or pets," Skinner said. "They bridge the gap. My particular chickens aren't that pet-like. They're more livestock-like." To encourage a chicken to be a pet, Skinner said, "All you have to do is handle them a lot from when they are baby chicks." Other website visitors reveal a common misunderstanding when it comes to the relationship between hens, roosters, chickens and eggs. "People forget their basic high school biology," Skinner said. They don't realize that you don't have to have a rooster in order to get eggs. Eggs in the store are from hens that will never see a rooster in their life, she explained. Only if you want to have baby chicks do you need a rooster Meanwhile, Apland-Curtis would just like to have her chickens back. "I miss their little personalities," she said, "how they would run out to you when you go out to the yard, to get a handout." Her rooster and chickens now live on a small Corbett farm run by a woman Apland-Curtis knows. Fortunately, Apland-Curtis and her family have visitation rights. They're welcome to stop by the farm anytime without notice to check on their chickens. "We've been out several times to see the chickens and have a little visit and bring them some cracked corn because they really like that," Apland-Curtis said. "It's a little chicken treat." Does she hope to once again raise chickens in Gresham? "I don't want to get in trouble with the city again," she said. "If the codes change and it becomes acceptable, I would love to have chickens again." Nancy Woods is an Oregon writer who can be reached at wordpics@aracnet.com

 
 

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