Question #2: Why raise chickens in suburbia?
I prefer chickens over dogs simply because they leave less
mess then dogs and produce eggs. You can train them to do be tame and come when
you call them (sort of like dogs) and they rid your property of ants and other
bugs. Currently we have ten adult chickens which lay almost daily and then five
young chickens that I’ll rotate into the flock as layers in late summer.
Perhaps though the most important reason one should raise
chickens, besides helping the biodiversity of ones garden, is the connection to
our past. Some neighbors revolt against the joyous sound of a hen after she
lays an egg. But many neighbors of the Greatest Generation rejoice as this
noise immediately connects them to their childhood. They thank us for taking
advantage of our large backyard by raising our flock of 15 as it brings the
sounds of their youth back to them. One of my 80-year-old neighbors even
requests that I bring a hen over every so often to scratch around her own small
yard, dropping manure to fertilize her flowers, rid her yard of bugs, all while
making her laugh as it runs around chasing dragonflies.
In my own case study of neighbor reactions to our chickens I
must also include the Baby Boomers to the south who have repeatedly called code
enforcement to try and get our flock condemned and removed. These folks smile
nicely to our faces and yet called so many times that a poor enforcement officer
came out to take pictures of our coop and run. The officer just shook her head
saying, “I don’t see why they are so upset. Your birds are cleaner and quieter
then large dogs in the neighborhood.” Perhaps the Boomer generation, which grew
up at the start of the sterilized concept of surburban living, consider
themselves the keepers of this sacred culture.
Perhaps this couple as well as others who raise eyebrows
saying, “Are you the ones with the chickens,” resent how keeping chickens goes
against the strain of suburban culture. Our culture tells us to farm out our
farming to others. Thoreau worried while rising early on Walden Pond and
building and reinforcing his cabin how one day most men would not be able to
build their own homes. He could forsee an America where every task would be
hired out to a different hired man and the typical American left a specialist
in minutia.
Keeping chickens brings back old skills of animal keeping
that we farmed out to industrialized farms after World War 2. In talking to my
older neighbors, the dear ones in their 80s and even 90s, they remember the day
when most families (even in new suburban homes) could keep a small cow in the
front yard. Before refrigeration Jersey cows were bred smaller so that each
family had one they would care for in order to get the family milk. Our family
could only dream of such a luxury. I know it sounds crazy but there are many
articles in “Mother Earth News” and other organic farming magazines that
describe what a family living on just a ½ acre could do with a small cow. If
the cow’s manure was properly managed one cow could make that ½ acre burst at
the seems with produce for the year. Now imagine the reaction of my neighbors
to such a menace.
On our .4 acre plot of land we are greatly blessed by earth
that two organic famers tilled and the fifty years before us. We purchased the
home from a family of five children who were raised here by a couple who loved
organic gardening. Therefore, at least 1/3 of the land has been reinforced by
trucked in compost each year and tenderly nurtured and tested for the correct
soil composition. Hence my garden is thriving and all I had to do was let the
chickens help me turn it over last Fall and plant new plants this Spring.
If you wish to join us in this world of suburban chicken
keeping here are some tips that might help you do well both with the neighbors
and other creatures. Most beginning chicken books will tell you all the tools
you need for chicken keeping and rearing. So my notes will simply help you deal
with the lesser known or thought about issues of, “how to go against the
suburban culture while living in it” side of chicken farming.
Firstly, it is wise to get your chickens from a known
hatchery that sexes the chickens for you. While it is fun to buy heritage
chickens (or chickens that have long pedigrees that need reviving) they are
often bought from small farmers who cannot sex their chickens. In suburbia one
rooster can ruin your entire relationship building with all your neighbors. No
amount of free eggs and produce can make up for the 3 am morning call of a
rooster (who will keep repeating himself for a ½ hour or more). Instead, when
you get your hens from the local farming coop you have a 95% or more chance
that they were sexed right. Usually when the young chickens turn 4 months old
is when any hidden roosters come into full voice. Your local farming store will
likely take back any surprise roosters and perhaps “cull” them for their own
purposes. But small heritage farmers rarely help you with surprise roosters so
you will be stuck trying to find a new home for them. Or in one case, I must
confess, you might be driven to driving out to the middle of farm land holding
a rooster in your lap. You might be so crazed by the morning call of the
rooster you cannot get rid of that you may just toss that rooster out into an
orchard on the outskirts of town. I’m just saying, this hypothetical situation
might just happen to you. To avoid this, just buy hens from a hatchery that
knows the hens from the cocks (yep that is their name).
Next, keeping hens in suburbia works best when you get
children involved in their upkeep. Chickens are small enough that even a
toddler can help chase them back into the pen. Gathering eggs should almost
always be the job of one of your small children as it is a chore they can
actually do well. Expect some broken eggs but you can use this small chore to
build confidence in the smallest of children. “Thank you! You helped make
breakfast by gathering and cleaning the eggs.”
Also, most of your child’s friends have never seen or held a
chicken or found a real egg. To increase the joy of chicken raising in your
suburban community educate each child that comes to visit. Our policy is that
guests always get to keep the eggs they find. We keep enough chickens that we
can afford to share our eggs with visitors. The joy of one who opens a coop
door to find an egg for the first time can be counted upon. Even more joyous is
my own joy watching this inevitable reaction. “Go ahead just take it. It’s
yours.” There is also a lot of humor awaiting your life as you watch the
giggles and fears of adults and children alike if they find a hen sitting on the
eggs. “Go ahead. Just knock her off the eggs. She won’t hurt you.”
