urban chickens on NPR

Listening to NPR's All Things Considered today and wouldn't you know it, I heard a rooster crow!

The rooster in question was background noise on Megan Verlee's segment called City Folk Flock To Raise Small Livestock at Home exploring the urban chicken phenomenon in Colorado.

While nothing she's reporting is new to readers of this blog (although I'm behind on reporting the efforts in Longmont, CO, to get an urban chicken ordinance adopted), it's great to hear a story on the radio about folks keeping urban chickens!

You can listen to the story via the Listen Now link at the top of this page.

appreciating the long crow roosters

Ok, I'm officially relieved at the comparative subtelty of the sounds our chickens make in the backyard.

Take a moment to feast your eyes and ears on this long crow rooster video:



What a pair of lungs! Would you believe a rooster that's guaranteed to crow at least 15 seconds can fetch up to $1,500 in Japan?

You can read more about how the Japanese Toumaru breed made its way to the US at the Long Crowers web site.

Durham, NC, urban chickens efforts (update)

Back in late November 2007, I first reported on the grassroots efforts to legalize Urban Chickens in Durham, NC. It seems the wheels of administration move slowly, but here we are 14 months later and the City Council is now considering the proposal to make chickens legal.

Last month, the City Council work session took up the issue of chickens. As reported over on The Durham News, much of the session was taken up by administrivia, but then the Council members began reminiscing about their own experience with chickens as kids (back when chickens were raised in sufficient quantity for meat and eggs). See the story to read the exact exchange, but if you've ever spoken with someone who saw a chicken killed to prep for dinner, you've heard it before.

From what I can tell by following the urban chicken movement, no one gets their birds for meat: it's all about the eggs. This is why we're so keen to get hens, not roosters, and I think why any good urban chicken ordinance bans the keeping of roosters, like the ordinance in nearby Chapel Hill.

So, imagine my surprise this morning when I see over on the Bull City Rising blog the following account of what happened at the latest Council meeting (emphasis mine):

The vote on urban chickens is paused until February, as predicted -- but at least four City Council members, including the mayor, seem disinclined to support the proposal as it stands. Jim Wise noted Bill Bell and Howard Clement had objections in a previous work session, noting their own childhood experiences growing up near chickens. Clement added to the fray yesterday by expressing concern that the groups requesting the change weren't socioeconomically diverse, and that poorer neighborhoods might see the requested change as leading to more disorder in the city. Farad Ali and Eugene Brown also expressed concerns.

You should also read the comments of the blog post itself for more information and to see exactly how Clement expressed the concern.

Wow. This looks to be a tough battle in Durham.

How would you suggest they go about changing minds?

UPDATE: be sure to read this great guest column by Adrian Brown in support of chickens in Durham published on DurhamNews.com

one woman's journey into urban chicken farming

Discovered a delightful mini-biography blog post this morning titled The Most Expensive Kind of Chicken by Gina.

In it, you can read how her early childhood experiences led her into finally becoming a chicken owner decades later, and the lessons she learned along the way.

As with all good stories, she's got a wonderful summary of what to do and what not to do at the end:

Most cities allow chickens, you just need to follow the specific regulations. I discovered this while working at an animal shelter. I read the laws (many of which are online) and found out that chickens were legal in my city. In areas where chickens are prohibited, well, times-they are a changing and now is the time to bring this up with your local powers-that-be. Start a local chicken fan blog or forum. Stack the numbers of pro-chicken fans to not. Write out a detailed plan outlining all the benefits of keeping these garden friends (fertilizer, pest control, food source, depression buster…) and present it to city councilmen or housing addition leaders. Around the country (and even in other countries) anti-chicken laws are being questioned and changed. It really was not that long ago that chickens in the city were a common sight. My mother, in the ’50’s & 60’s, lived quite urban-ly and her family kept chickens and rabbits in the garage.

If the laws are already in your favor, be a good neighbor-with-chickens. Do as I suggest, not as I do, and research breeds, care and the ins-and-outs of urban chickens before you get the chickens. Keep your chickens’ area clean. Watch out for poisonous plants and chemicals. It’s pretty easy to keep a chicken happy and chickens can certainly make others happy given the right conditions!

I couldn't agree more with what Gina says. And she makes me wonder what my little girls will take away from their childhoods-with-chickens as they become independent women of their own.

(BTW, great to see the article on urban chickens in USA Today last week. Maybe 2009 is the year we build the momentum necessary to go mainstream in 2010!)

urban chickens weather the cold, cold night

This weekend the overnight temperature dropped below freezing here in the Bay Area (I know, tough) and it got me thinking about those urban chickens in places where there's actually snow on the ground like Denver, Chicago and Seattle(!).

Just how cold-tolerant are your chickens? Turns out, most breeds are quite hardy in the cold. You can look up how hardy your breed is in this handy table. It looks like most laying breeds are pretty hardy... it's the showy ones that don't do so well in the cold or heat. Lucky for us, our Plymouth Rocks are very cold hardy, so they must think living in California is a dream (like their owners do).

Even if your chooks are hardy, there are at least a couple things you want to make sure of when the mercury dips low:

• ensure ready access to fresh water: make sure your water source doesn't ice over. Easily remedied by purchasing a water heater for your coop. Or check out this video of using a 60W bulb to keep the water unfrozen.
  
• protect the chooks from frost bite: yes, those red flappy things (the comb and wattles) can get frostbitten, so when you know it's going to be freezing out for an extended period of time, get some vaseline on the red bits to protect them. Here's a nice explanation as to how to protect the combs.

One thing that seems a bit contentious among urban chicken farmers is whether you should use an electric bulb in the coop to heat things up. Yes, the right wattage will keep things nice and toasty for the girls in the coop. But as some have pointed out, if the bulb should go out unexpectedly, your girls will not be acclimated to the cold air and might not survive the night. Take a look at this discussion about heating coops over on Backyard Chickens to get a peak at how both sides see it. It's interesting to note that stories show most feed store personnel look at urban chicken farmers oddly when asked about heating coops, as if to say "why the heck would you want to do that? They're just chickens!" They don't seem to realize that urban chickens are really pets (aren't they?) and therefore worth the extra fuss.

What are you doing to keep your urban chicken flock warm this winter?

Urban Chickens in HD on ABC

I know it's a slow news time, but yesterday our local ABC affiliate (KGO-TV, channel 7) had a four-minute segment on Urban chicken trend on rise in Bay Area.

I can't embed the video, so you'll have to follow the link to see the segment (in HD!) interviewing several urban chicken farmers from the East Bay and North Bay.

In all, I think the reporter did a great job of extolling the virtues of raising your own urban chickens while getting some great shots of birds and coops (you'll see one that's been built into the kids' play structure... that gives me an idea!).

Oh, and there's a nice plug for Rob Ludlow's BackyardChickens.com community as well.

Here's hoping even more folks are inspired by the news segment to get their own chooks and start enjoying yard-fresh eggs.

starting the year with a laugh

Hoping you all had a great start to the new year, too.

Please enjoy this clip of Gonzo with his PPPs - the Perfect Pitch Poultry