Sunday, January 30, 2011

How many of us have road-side chickens?

I visited my parents new house in Seattle this weekend, and wouldn't you know it, a neighbor just two doors down from them has chickens!

How did I know he has chickens? Because he keeps his coop along the side of the house, just a few feet from the sidewalk. This isn't to say he doesn't have a backyard to keep them in. He does, but his girls are there for all the world to see and (like me) admire and wonder about.
side-yard coop in the Tangle Town neighborhood of Seattle
I snapped the picture above as I was returning from my morning run around Green Lake. You can clearly see the sidewalk to the right, and the tree-lined street is just a few feet beyand.  I couldn't help but smile as I saw these two chickens going about their morning scratching-and-pecking ritual there by the side of the road in full view of anyone walking or driving by.

It got me wondering how many others keep their girls on display for all the world to see? I suppose local zoning laws exert a lot of influence over exhibiting your chooks out in the open, but for those who can, do you? And if not, why not?

For the record, there's nothing in the regulations here in Redwood City to stop us from keeping urban chickens in the front yard. I just worry one of my egg-layers might wind up as dinner on someone else's table. We've got enough problems with raccoons, I don't want to have to worry about other invaders of the human kind.

6 comments:

bandwidow said...

We have our entire backyard fenced in chain-link (it was like that when we moved in...). Anyhow, we started building our coop last spring, and by the time our girls were feathered out and had moved in our whole neighborhood stopped in to see! Oftentimes I look out the kitchen window to see families standing at the fence and pointing. Once in a while I grab a handful of black oil sunflower seeds to let the visitors have an up close visit. I love talking chicken, so really any opportunity to inform the public about sustainable living is golden!

Granny Annie said...

We are on ten acres so our chickens are free range. Often they go to the front area near the road and I love to see them scattered. They are so beautiful and I call them my movable lawn ornaments. I have a sign posted near the road that says "Chicken Crossing" and so far we have not lost a chicken to an automobile. We did lose a guinea fowl however.

Sarah said...

I could keep the girls out front but worry about vandalism. we live near a high school and have problems already with landscaping beung destroyed.

badgerpendous said...

Great to see so many new posts!

We have three chicken-owning families on our street in Redwood City, but you just wouldn't know it by walking past.

I have a small lawn next the driveway I'm thinking about tearing out, and so I'm thinking about having the birds spend time out there chomping away for a week or two first.

admin said...

I dont think it would be a good ide to have my hens on display where I live. I live on a small council estate and their is always a lot of teenagers around causing mischeive.

T. A. In Colorado said...

Here in Fort Collins, Colorado the whole chicken thing has been just a wee bit slower to catch on. When I tell people that I have my first flock, they are often shocked to find out that its legal now.

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