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Chicken owners seek free range in city
Maude, an urban chicken of Los Angeles, Calif.
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Steve Chiotakis: This'll help get your breakfast to cluck -- click. And help your pocketbook too. Seems there are quite a few folks going the route of backyard chicken coup. Owners say hens churn out delicious, fresh eggs for just a few bucks a week. But we're not talkin' rural Ohio or the hollers of Virginia. How about downtown Philly? Where having chickens is against the law. Our wingman Joel Rose reports.
Joel Rose: At first glance, Zoe's backyard looks typical for a house in West Philadelphia. There's a big wooden deck and a yard extending another 10 feet back. And then, there's the chicken coop.
Zoe: Come here girls, come here, come here girls. Look what I got.
The four birds converge from all corners of the yard, pecking vigorously at the sunflower seeds she dispenses.
Zoe: The white one kind is the ugliest, in my opinion. But she's the best layer. And I was reading somewhere that the uglier the chicken, the better the layer.
Zoe spends about $1.50 a week on chicken feed. In exchange, she gets two to four fresh eggs a day.
Zoe: They're really good. They just taste eggier.
But there's a reason she doesn't want me to use her last name. Like many cities around the country, Philadelphia prohibits backyard chickens.
Tara Schernecke: They defecate everywhere. So if somebody's not really diligent in cleaning, I mean that's, it can get all over the place.
Tara Schernecke is interim director of Philadelphia Animal Care and Control. She says chickens can pose a health hazard if they attract rodents. She says the birds need a lot of space.
Schernecke: Chickens are kuje little roosting guys. They like to run around. They do not like to be cooped up in a small area. It's just not fair to them.
But backyard chicken enthusiasts disagree. They're petitioning the city to make chickens legal in Philadelphia -- just like they are in hundreds of other cities around the country.
Thomas Kriese: Chicken chicken chickens! Come on!
Thomas Kriese keeps two chickens in Redwood City, Calif., a suburb of San Francisco. He writes a blog called UrbanChickens.net, where he tracks successful chicken legalization efforts from Asheville, N.C. to Vancouver, B.C.
Kriese: There seems to be more of a push towards hey, this makes good economic sense for me to have a little more food security. I can grow my own garden, I can raise my own chickens for eggs.
And Kriese says one man's chicken poop is another man's fertilizer. He admits that if the chickens are left unattended, they'll make a meal out of his vegetable garden. But he says the trade-off is worth it.
Kriese: Now I'm going to open the latch to the coop itself. And when I look in, wow -- I have three eggs.
I'm Joel Rose for Marketplace.
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I live in North Philadelphia and I think chickens are a good idea. They are safer food alternative and economical. City dwellers have to be exposed to some of the basics of self sustainability. We are so far removed from the reality of what it really takes to survive on this earth that its ridiculous. Any city ordinance that bans have chickens is your yard should also apply to dogs. I never heard of a chicken malling a child to death. Have you ?
Chicken savvy cities have full nests, a local food supply and clucking civic workers that divert food and yard residues away from solid waste management streams. This list of cities encouraging and allowing city chicks gets longer every day, and with every election of NEW city council members who are truly helping to create “green†and sustainable municipalities.
The “Chicken Underground†is emerging all across North America. People are increasingly are exercising their “Declaration of Local Foods Rightsâ€
There is a universal Right for people to grow (and rise) their own food. Hence: The Declaration of Local Foods Rights. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people have certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the right to grow one's food in their backyards —including a family flock of chickens!
There are more ideas in our newest book: City Chicks: Keeping micro-flocks of chickens as Garden Helpers, Compost Makers. Bio-recyclers and Local Food Suppliers
City Chicks has lots of ideas about integrating chickens in with food production and there are systems described where you can let your flock out of the pen/coop to patrol the entire garden. This is done by fencing, poultry portals and different fencing for different needs.
Keep up the great work and thank you for sharing!
…..and may the flock be with you!
Pat Foreman
If you want chickens, move to the suburbs! Not everyone is responsible. We have hundreds of dogs and cats surrendered to animal control on a daily basis. Now we want to add chickens? How about pigs, can I also have a pig? When does it end? And as far as chickens attracting rodents, throw some chicken feed on the ground and see if a rat or mouse will eat the remaining feed on the ground.
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I'm just realizing I was missing the point of Alison S' physician's quote....
my bad.
if someone does get sick from an avian related illness, can they start wondering why they spent so much time with their chicken coops instead of holding on to their health insurance to treat it?
good lord, it's too early for me
Alison S says the doctor says:
"if you have your 401k in order, all your bills paid off, a secure job, health insurance, annual health exams, floss your teeth twice per day, and an otherwise perfect life, then you might have time/reason to worry about avian flu..."
sorry, but who has all of those things these days?
Also, I'd like to hope there'll be some more serious consideration of health risks by all of you folks with your illegal chicken coops. I appreciate the attempts at moving away from factory farming, but why are backyard coops illegal in most major cities? Anyone?
And keeping your chickens away from migratory fowl? Is there to be an agency that will monitor that's being done properly, or do we let the invisible hand of the market correct that one?
Ha!
I have lived in inner-city urban environments as well as the rural farmstead we now call home (along with eight hens and various other critters). So far as chickens attracting rodents, I don't believe that is a very valid concern. Urban rodents are there because of people - not their pets. Surprisingly, I have, in fact, witnessed our hens catching and killing a barn mouse on more than one occasion.
We have three chickens on our 1/2 acre property. They have been a wonderful food and fertilizer source, and great pets for our young daughter. We have reduced our trash output too, by feeding them our kitchen scraps. All in all, they have been easy pets with very few needs.
Regarding the post above about the neighbors in the city with 8 chickens. I'd have to say that 8 chickens are too much to have in an urban setting. Hens can be loud when they are laying eggs (bak bak baaak!). And cleaning that much poop in a small coop would be quite a task. If anyone is considering having chickens in an urban setting, I would recommend 2 or 3 at the most (they are very social, so 1 won't work very well).
However, regarding the dogs going nuts about the chickens - who's to say that dogs have more of a right to be in the neighborhood than chickens? We have coyotes in our neighborhood too, and there are quite a few stories of those coyotes making a meal out of unattended backyard dogs. To me, dogs are much more of a nuisance than chickens; they bark at all hours of the night, you find their feces and urine all over the place in public parks (yuck!), and some of them will bite children. In my opinion, if dogs are legal in a city, chickens should also be legal (with limits to flock size of course).
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