Runaway October

Lit­tle chicken by hddod

Awhile back I may have men­tioned that I was think­ing of get­ting some chick­ens to keep in the back­yard. Then we got Fable, the Great Dane pup,  and I let it slide. Who really needs to worry about a giant puppy and chicks at the same time?

Now that we’ve moved, Fable’s trained and we have more room, I’ve been think­ing about it again. Espe­cially when I fry up some over-easy eggs and the yolks are light yel­low. At Best. Sadly, we got a newslet­ter from our HOA with a friendly lit­tle reminder that all live­stock — cows, horses, sheep, pigs, chick­ens, goats, etc — are against county zon­ing and the HOA CC&Rs. With a lit­tle bit of research I learned that the county does not ban any pets. They only ban live­stock in cer­tain areas, which is any ani­mal that you use for a profit, such as sell­ing meat, milk, eggs, and other prod­ucts. So now it’s all on the HOA. I’ve heard one other lit­tle lonely voice in the HOA forums say­ing they’d like chick­ens, so it’s us against them. Ha!

Danc­ing Chicken by joyrex

There are so many rea­sons to keep your own chickens:

• Insect con­trol — What do chick­ens do all day? They hunt, peck and scratch for bugs. I’ve seen a pack of hens dec­i­mate a scor­pion in sec­onds flat, as well.
• Snake con­trol — Same as with a scor­pion. While they may not eat a snake, they sure make him sorry for com­ing around.
• Fer­til­izer — Chicken manure fer­til­izer is one of the high­est in nutri­ents of all the ani­mal fertilizers.
• Eggs, of course — Accord­ing to Robin Rip­ley, “In con­trast to fac­tory farm eggs, eggs from back­yard chick­ens have 25 per­cent more vit­a­min E, a third more vit­a­min A and 75 per­cent more beta carotene [hence why home­grown egg yolks are bright orange and so tasty]. They also have sig­nif­i­cantly more omega-3 fatty acids than fac­tory farmed eggs.”
• Local Food — What bet­ter way to know where your food comes from? You know what your chick­ens are eat­ing, so you know what’s in your eggs and meat as well.
• Respon­si­bil­ity and Life Cycles — Teach­ing chil­dren where food comes from and how to care for pets is vital. Car­ing for chick­ens is eas­ier than a dog or cat.

Red Hen by jamesmorton

A few con­cerns I’ve heard are that chick­ens are noisy, attract bugs and preda­tors, and spread avian flu. Roost­ers can cer­tainly be annoy­ing, but many urban chicken keep­ers choose not to keep roost­ers. Roost­ers are not required for hens to pro­duce eggs and many peo­ple wont keep them out of respect for their neigh­bors. An unkempt chicken coop can cer­tainly attract flies, but like any pet main­te­nance is impor­tant to the well­be­ing of  your flock. Back­yard chick­ens are unlikely to con­tract avian flu in the first place. They do not “social­ize” with sick fowl and are kept in bet­ter con­di­tions so the like­li­hood of catch­ing any dis­ease is low.

Hens & Chicks at Sprout­ing Horn by ehoyer

Use­ful links for Urban Chickens:

• Urban Chick­ens
• The City Chicken
• Back­yard Chickens
• All About Chickens
• How to Keep Chick­ens in the City
• Rais­ing Chick­ens on an Urban Homestead

Hens by Amanda Rudkin

News arti­cles on Urban Chickens:

• Chick­ens Given Roost in Urban Backyards
• City Well Suited for Urban Chickens
• US City Dwellers Flock to Rais­ing Chickens
• Urban Chick­ens Rul­ing the Roost
• Eat­ing Locally: Back­yard Chickens
• Eight Ben­e­fits of Rais­ing Back­yard Chickens
• Bel­guim Offers Chick­ens to Waste-Cutting Households

King of the coop by ninjaclutz

Books on Chicken Keeping:

• Keep Chick­ens! Tend­ing Small Flocks in Cities, Sub­urbs, and Other Small Spaces, by Bar­bara Kilarski
• Liv­ing with Chick­ens: Every­thing You Need to Know to Raise Your Own Back­yard Flock, by Jay Rossier
• The Joy of Keep­ing Chick­ens: The Ulti­mate Guide to Rais­ing Poul­try for Fun or Profit, by Jen­nifer Megyesi
• Chick­ens In Your Back­yard: A Beginner’s Guide, by Rick Luttmann
• Barn­yard in Your Back­yard: A Beginner’s Guide to Rais­ing Chick­ens, Ducks, Geese, Rab­bits, Goats, Sheep, and Cows, by Gail Damerow
• City Chicks: Keep­ing Micro-flocks of Chick­ens as Gar­den Helpers, Com­post Mak­ers, Bio-reyclers, and Local Food Pro­duc­ers, by Patri­cia Foreman
• The Urban Hen: A Prac­ti­cal Guide to Keep­ing Poul­try in a Town or City, by Paul Peacock

Chicks in a Box by samdogs

So there’s some infor­ma­tion for you. I’ll keep you updated on how things go with the HOA.

Would you keep Urban Chick­ens? Why or Why not?

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