Posted by Katie on March 11, 2010

Want: Urban Chickens

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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!

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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.
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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.

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Hens & Chicks at Sprout­ing Horn by ehoyer

Use­ful links for Urban Chickens:

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Hens by Amanda Rudkin

News arti­cles on Urban Chickens:

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King of the coop by ninjaclutz

Books on Chicken Keeping:

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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. icon biggrin Want: Urban Chickens

Would you keep Urban Chick­ens? Why or Why not?

Posted by Katie on January 27, 2010

(Not so) Wordless Wednesday

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These lit­tle guys were will­ing to brave the Ari­zona rain to get at the pinecone bird feed­ers the boys and I made the other day. The first batch sat for a week or two before the birds found them, but now it’s like Tem­ple­ton at the Fair.

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And this lit­tle boy was will­ing to brave the rain too!

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Good thing Fable was keep­ing this spot warm for him.

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Fin­ished this scarf today. Can’t decide if I like it nor not? It’s at least 8 foot long, and I’m not even going to men­tion what my brother said about it. Well, maybe. He com­pared it to parts of the female anatomy. What a butthead.

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Made my first batch of Sour­dough Bread ever today. It’s so yummy. One of the least finnicky breads I’ve worked with, surprisingly.

I went to check my email and one of the loaves was hoovered down in sec­onds flat. Mostly by afore­men­tioned brother. Butthead.

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There is NO Typo. :/

And last, but not least, I finally got around to pack­ag­ing up a Valentine’s Day Sur­prise for a cer­tain spe­cial some­one. Do you know who you are? icon biggrin (Not so) Wordless Wednesday

And this con­cludes our semi-rainy Wednes­day  stuck at home. Tell me about yours!

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Please don’t for­get to vote for me daily, if you would be so kind. Thank you!