urban chicken raising soars but with fancy fancy coops

[Liberal_in_LA]

I had chickens as a kid. They wouldn't have appreciated a chandelier. they were more into big juicy bugs


Poulet chalets

"Sales of baby chicks are up about 50 percent from a year ago," says John Bellandi, owner of Alamo Hay & Grain. Online searches are going gangbusters. According to Yahoo, searches for "chicken coops" are up 100 percent, while searches for "chicken coop plans" are up 225 percent (these numbers represent 30 days ending on April 19).


"Raising chickens doesn't really take much work," says K. Ruby Blume of Oakland's Institute of Urban Homesteading, which promotes self-sufficiency in a convenience-driven society and whose classes on raising backyard chickens are often sold out. "You'll need a cage, of course, and room for them to roam and to protect them from predators, such as raccoons; you'll need to lock them up at night." Otherwise the expenses are minimal; the chicks cost a couple of bucks; they mostly eat table scraps, and a 50-pound bag of chicken feed costs about $20.


But for four Bay Area urban farmers, no mere cage will do. They're housing their hens in style - gracing their coops with decorative touches such as a chandelier, custom roosts made from cherry branches, split-level interiors and glass windows to maximize natural light. And there's more to chickens than fresh eggs, they say. Chickens make great pets, all the while eating pests and fertilizing the yard.

pic of coop with chandelier at link


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/25/HOK91CMT9H.DTL#ixzz0m9cBP3xo

[pscot]

1. Must be kind of tough

to fricassee a "pet" when it stops laying eggs.

[hlthe2b]

3. I noticed that wasn't addressed...

Maybe they just keep around as "retired" pets.

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. How sweet (my cats were retired pets from birth)

[uppityperson]

21. my oldest nonlayer is 12. omg. Lucy is 12. She lays 1 egg/yr now

she gets to eat and hang out with the others. Part of the problem is what to do with older birds. I've given ones I don't like, un-named ones, away to people, no questions asked. But Lucy gets to have a nice retirement.

[Cherchez la Femme]

55. WTG uppity!

:applause:

[Javaman]

44. Aside from breeds, there are two types of chickens...

Layers and fryers. Fryers can lay eggs but layers don't always make good fryers.

Usually, people who have layers allow them to live out their lives.

Chickens don't have very long lives.

[Arkansas Granny]

45. All of our old gals died of old age. The only chickens that wound up in the pot

were the young roosters who didn't have names. Once you name them, it changes the whole relationship.

[Cherchez la Femme]

54. I certainly would keep as pet

unless I was absolutely starving, of course. But then I've said all this down under my 'Correction' post...

[LWolf]

19. My old hens have never stopped laying.

They lay fewer eggs, but generally keep producing until they die of old age.

The only time I "fricassee" one of my chickens is when broody hens hatch out some chicks; the roosters are destined for the pot. Or when a rooster gets aggressive; that's been rare.

One rooster, ten hens...a mixed flock. The only "purebreds" are 4 of the original hens this group started with 4 years ago. The rest are interesting combinations descended from that original group.

[roguevalley]

22. I was watching a Dog Whisperer and Cesar was helping the

Marley and Me author train his new lab pup. He liked to chase chickens and Cesar had a chicken, holding it in front of the new lab and letting it know the dog couldn't have it. Freaked the chicken out so much she dropped an egg on the spot at Cesar's feet. I love chickens. A couple have a black rooster a street over and one day on a walk, this black rooster comes along and we walk together. So I go knocking on doors in our suburban neighborhood until a kid answers, yells, "MOM! BLACKIE GOT OUT AGAIN!" picks him up and closes the door. I on the other hand rolled on the floor laughing. Blackie was a great walker, buck-buck-bucking along with me. I love chickens. Did I tell you that?

[LWolf]

23. I love them, too.

I lived in town for 4 years after my divorce; I bought a tiny, ancient little cottage at the edge of an old tract, zoned industrial, right next door to 50 empty acres that was a chicken ranch before encroaching suburbia evicted it. The house came with 4 hens; I only had one neighbor, and he didn't mind, so I was never turned in. I loved having those hens free-ranging all over the little postage stamp-sized lot the cottage came on; there was a fence all the way around, so they were free to scratch and cluck all over.

When I got my current dog, as a puppy, she was smaller than they were; she learned quickly to leave them alone, and has lived with free-ranging hens ever since. These days, I've moved back to a rural area; my flock is a little larger, includes a rooster because I love to watch a broody hen raise chicks, and ranges over 6 acres instead of a city lot. The dog still doesn't bother them.

?t=1272285109

[BrklynLiberal]

42. That sounds wonderful....

[BrklynLiberal]

34. I saw that episode of The Dog Whisperer.

Made me think that those people should NEVER have owned any dogs.

Great story about Blackie!! :D

[Cherchez la Femme]

56. When I do get my fowl

it's possible to buy chicks as only females (hens in time), isn't it?
Obviously, without a rooster, you wouldn't have to cook any! Yay!


Wow, if I couldn't buy just (future) hens I don't know WHAT I'd do.... probably bring the roosters to the local Humane Society 'farm'...
Where I grew up, near Rochester NY, they had a place called Lollypop Farm, where they kept every kind of animal in a big farm type area where families could come visit. Most were rescues, but as these things go I'm sure many were turn-ins where the people didn't mistreat their animals but for whatever reason (moving, etc.) could no longer keep them.

But the first step is not to get into that position...

[LWolf]

57. You can buy just hens.

They cost a little more; not much. It's hard to find a home for roosters, so if you're in town, definitely go with getting sexed chicks!

I like the sound of a rooster crowing in the morning. Mine, my neighbor's...of course, if I had hundreds of neighbors, instead of 3, it wouldn't be so charming, lol.

[Mari333]

2. they can pay for their health care now!

[cutlassmama]

5. they need a vegetable garden too!

[madrchsod]

6. i`m sure they clean the cage every day.....or some one else does.

[mopinko]

7. meh

cage cleaning is over rated

[KittyWampus]

24. some coops are moveable. Many raised so poop falls through.

[BrklynLiberal]

8. Google Urban Farming. It is like dog poop...everywhere...

My neighbor, here in Brooklyn has a chicken coop.

I was out walking my dog a couple of weeks ago and thought I had lost my mind. I heard chickens clucking!!

I was later told that I was not the one who was crazy. My neighbor had built a chicken coop, heated and lit...and was raising chickens in her backyard.
I hear them all the time now when I walk my dog. Thank goodness there isn't a rooster.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/23/dining/23sfdine.html
That Big Farm Called San Francisco

Published: April 23, 2010

Having already pointed out the fermented tea kombucha “living” on top of the fridge, and the kefir milk fermenting in the pantry, and the homemade sourdough crackers browning in the oven, Melinda Stone led a visitor down to the basement of the Victorian house she shares with three other creative 40-somethings in the Duboce Triangle neighborhood of San Francisco. “There’s a lot of stuff bubbling down here,” she said enthusiastically, sliding open a door. “I think it’s beautiful.
<snip>
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/magazine/14fob-wwln-t.html
The Femivore’s Dilemma
Four women I know — none of whom know one another — are building chicken coops in their backyards. It goes without saying that they already raise organic produce: my town, Berkeley, Calif., is the Vatican of locavorism, the high church of Alice Waters. Kitchen gardens are as much a given here as indoor plumbing. But chickens? That ups the ante. Apparently it is no longer enough to know the name of the farm your eggs came from; now you need to know the name of the actual bird.
<snip>

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/dining/19yard.html

A Chicken on Every Plot, a Coop in Every Backyard
NOVELLA CARPENTER remembers the day she killed her first chicken.

CITY-RAISED LeNell Smothers raises hens in her yard in Brooklyn and uses the eggs in cocktails.

It was a rooster named Twitchy who had been injured by an opossum that got into her backyard chicken flock. About to leave for vacation, Ms. Carpenter, 34, had no way of caring for the wounded Twitchy while she was away. So she took it to the back porch and chopped off its head.

“I cried,” she said. “I buried it. It was very sad. But then I realized that I could do it again and eat it.
<snip>

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

http://www.slate.com/id/2192934/

There Will Be Chicken Blood
The gritty truth about urban farming.

By L.E. Leone Posted Wednesday, June 4, 2008, at 12:58 PM ET

My chickens, I like to think, are the most highly entertained chickens in the world. I sunbathe with them, hang out in the bushes with them, and sing to them. When they hear me sing my one cover, "St. Louis Blues," they know to be nervous. "I hate to see ... that evening sun go down," I croon. And they get goose bumps. They seem to know that when that evening sun does go down, one of them will lose her head.

I'm a sweet girl, I swear! Every time, I cry like crazy. It's not easy to swing the ax, but I do; then I kneel in the dirt, holding the body still while it flutters, and hyperventilate. It doesn't take that long. There's never as much blood as I think there's going to be, either, which is vaguely disappointing. If I'm going to kill what I love, I want as much as possible to show for it, including ruined clothing.

<snip>

[Gold Metal Flake]

13. Need a rooster if you want eggs.

Ain't that right?

[BlueGADawg]

15. No rooster needed

You only need a rooster if you want to have baby chicks. The hens lay eggs whether they are fertile or not.

[BrklynLiberal]

16. ..and people who want eggs to eat..do not want fertilized eggs..

[pipoman]

29. Fertilized or unfertilized, makes no difference..

higher production with a rooster in the yard..

[Obamanaut]

52. See 'balut' - link in message box

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balut_(egg)

[4_TN_TITANS]

25. Rooster not required

but having one around will increase the hens production. Now that the days are longer again (length of light also affects them), we get about a dozen eggs a day. Years ago when we first got hens, I was afraid that we would just be throwing away eggs we didn't use. It was a pleasant surprise to find that we usually had more requests for fresh eggs than we had eggs to sell.

And man, do those hens mow down the bugs! Anything that moves in the yard, no matter how small, gets their attention. Even snakes aren't safe from a flock of hens. I've seen them slurp up snakes like spaghetti.

[Gold Metal Flake]

27. I be schooled. I'm interested and I have a big backyard.

But I would have to have some sort of containment when they are not in the coop so that they don't kill all of the lizards.

I imagine a time when five or six neighbors on a street or culdesac enter into a co-op where each produces something and the results are shared. One producing eggs, one specializing in some set of crops, another specializing in another group of crops. That way they can maximize the areas best suited to whatever and increase density. On a culdesac each house gets different light different times of day. I'm not saying this very well but you get my drift?

[Dappleganger]

37. Coops on wheels.

Our friends built a system to protect their chickens from critters while also being able to move them around each day.

Your idea is a good one. I wish our HOA restrictions didn't prevent us from doing the same. At least we can garden (although it must be done 'neatly').

[BrklynLiberal]

33. Wow! thanks. Great info.

:thumbsup: :hi:

[Liberal_in_LA]

41. That's what I remember about my chickens - every bug that moved was gobbled up

[Dappleganger]

36. LOL, city boy! nt

[Gold Metal Flake]

40. Knock it off! LOL!

:blush:

[JAbuchan08]

26. I have a rooster crowing nearby

I don't always hear it, but god forbid you wake up early in the morning, you may never get back to sleep.

[bvar22]

9. Our new babies say "HI".

Is there anything cuter than a 1 day old chick?

These 1 day old chicks are Blue Copper Marans,
and will be joining the rest of our birds in a few months.


These are not "Urban" chickens.
They live in Rural Paradise.

We started keeping chickens in 2007, and found them to be much more intelligent and social than we expected. We have grown to love our birds, and enjoy our daily interaction.

[Liberal_in_LA]

14. nice

[BrklynLiberal]

17. They are beautiful.

[JoeyT]

20. That's the same kind I've got.

Brown leghorns, RIRs and Australs. I've been recommending the Browns to everyone ever since I got them since they're small, they're tame, and they lay absurdly large eggs. (The biggest I've ever seen come from a chicken)

The only thing I know of that gives chicks a run for their money are ducklings. Especially runner duck ducklings (I just bought a few).

[pipoman]

30. Leghorns are great (maybe the best) layers

but a worse meat bird doesn't exist...skinny, bony, just don't buy straight run with intentions of butchering the cockerels.

[Dappleganger]

38. They're gorgeous! nt

[Arugula Latte]

10. I know many people here in Portland, Ore. w/ backyard chickens.

It started getting very big here maybe five or more years ago.

I've thought about it, but we're already a little overrun with animals, so I don't have the time/energy to care for them properly.

[Gormy Cuss]

11. I love the chandelier.

It was probably left over from a room remodel but it gives the hen a high perch should they choose to fly that far.

Of the four profiled chicken households, two are in very high income communities (Danville and Woodside) and the other two are in mixed income communities but mostly middle to high income. I'd love to see urban chicken farming take off in low income communities too.

[BrklynLiberal]

18. Actually, near me, in Coney Island..there is a piece of land devoted to chickens, ducks and

other fowl of various types. I THINK they use them for eggs only, and teaching kids.

[K8-EEE]

12. My friends in Santa Monica CA have backyard chickens

They're really cute!

[Name removed]

28. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[upi402]

31. ducks

happen

[foxfeet]

32. When I lived in Manhattan in the late '70s,

the people in the tenement across the street kept chickens. They were sort of "free range" in the concrete jungle. I'm surprised the rats didn't get 'em.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

35. Having more chickens onhand will, no doubt, help people gain more access to healthcare.

What does an eye exam cost nowadays? 5... maybe 6 chickens?

[murphyj87]

39. Sue Lowden?

Does Sue Lowden and "Chickens for health care" know about this?

[nadinbrzezinski]

43. If the descendants of T-Rex are half as intelligent

as the two conures, yes, they would make fine pets.

Hell, my mom had a chicken as a pet when growing up...

They had fresh eggs... to boot.

But I don't know if I'd go so far as them fancy digs. Hell, the conures don't...

[earth mom]

46. I saw an awesome and adorable coop on someone's blog just the other day.

And over the weekend I vistited a store that is a combination plant nursery/chicken supply.

They had many different varieties of baby chicks that were so damn cute I wanted to buy some on the spot.

Unfortunately we have a few raccoons that show up at our house from time to time so we really would need to build a coop and make it very secure.

[flvegan]

47. If one is going to eat eggs, this is the way to do it.

That is until someone invents the Backyard Battery Farm do-it-yourself coop kit.

[Cherchez la Femme]

48. Chicken Tractors

Ever heard of them?

As a vegetable gardener (I just wrote a post on the horrible state of organic gardening in the N.E.)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=532087&mesg_id=532154
there's a real cool 'portable' chicken coop which also acts as a perfect soil conditioner/preparer when you're about to start planting.

It's a chain-link fence dog kennel, with a top,on little rollers. The coop is built up on top near the 'roof' (can be chain-link or anything, really). You position where you want it for the day & let the chickens go to work getting all the bugs, scratching up the weeds, etc. If you leave it long enough it's as if a tractor was there including natural fertilization.
When the plot it's on is taken care of to your taste &/or needs, you just roll it to another area.

I'll check around and see if I can find a link to this certain type of coop.

I've known about this for a couple years, but right now zoning is preventing chickens in my suburb.
I'm also concerned about the chickens survival in winter. All these Chicken Tractors I've seen are totally built of metal, and I'm sure that's not good for keeping chickens warm & alive during NE winters, hoisted up in the air. (They're designed to be up in the air like that because of raccoons & other predators upon them, so there IS a good reason.)

I'm hoping zoning will change (maybe if cocks aren't allowed?) so if anyone can tell me or direct me to good sites regarding the warmth, care & considerations of chickens in winter could you please send me your advice or links via email as I don't come here too often anymore? Thanks in advance!



edit:

Here's one, but built out of wood. The dog kennel type keeps the bars very low so predators can't get in, although I'm sure better carpenters than I can get all 4 rails level:



Here's another, but not the one I was focused on. The one I like was a full 6-7 foot tall dog run with the coop made from metal, anti-predator. I guess I'm so focused on predators is that WAY back I lived on a tiny farm and made part of a small tack stall into a coop for some rolling & tumbling pigeons & raccoons or some type of predator got in and the result was horrible!
...and just a few days before they escaped a huge aggressive hawk due to their incredible aerial maneuvers! So sad.

[Dappleganger]

50. Excellent post! nt

[Cherchez la Femme]

53. Correction

"...and just a few days before they escaped a huge aggressive hawk due to their incredible aerial maneuvers!"

I mean 'just a few days AFTER they escaped...hawk' I probably meant to write "...and just a few days before, they escaped a huge aggressive hawk due to their incredible aerial maneuvers!" and missed the comma. That comma changes the whole sentence, obviously.

My grammar has always sucked, sorry. Is probably why I'm a good poet, but a terrible article/post writer.


It's been a couple years since I did a lot of reading on these Chicken Tractors. Obviously they've caught on and there's been a lot of variations on the theme.
I still like the dog run, one good reason is you can find lots of used runs cheap -- good recycling!
I saw one just this past weekend at a lawn sale for $25! :(
The design on the dog run Chicken Tractor also had the door directly in the center with a removable track/walkway (term?), easily and conveniently hung on hooks on the chain-link during non-use/nighttime, so predators can't get to them at all; unlike the first one (the wood one) I edited in which has a permanent 'walkway' built on, giving the door easy access to any creature looking for a chicken dinner
--other than you, of course :)
Not me, I'm an ovo-lacto vegetarian; damn me! :D
Anyhow, if a fowl gives their life to me improving my soil and providing me with eggs, well IMO she has the right to grow old even at the end of her productive (heh) life, be eggless and die of natural causes.

Goddess help me if I ever have a dairy farm though... half the cows would be neutered males as I couldn't use or sell the male calves for all they're "commercially" worth: meat.
Heck, I would probably "liberate" all those poor chained up veal calves... but that's illegal. Honestly, I guess if I had the money and land to keep them I'd just buy them.
Sorry, way OT.

Regarding eggs:
I know people eat goose eggs; they're great guard animals but big and very loud.
There are certain ducks also who are fantastic free-ranging in a growing garden, safe around growing vegetables and especially talented regarding gobbling up slugs and other bugs which were the bane of my garden this past year. I wonder if ducks can be cooped with chickens? Can any breed of duck and chicken be cooped together, anyhow? Aren't duck eggs just as nutritious as chicken eggs? I don't even know if they taste the same, even similar, though.
I don't see why they can't be cooped together, but who knows? Cattle and horses don't pasture together well at all, the reasons are beyond me, but there it is... Mother Nature has her reasons, whatever they may be.

I sure wish my town smartens up in the future and allows fowl, and quickly.

[lunatica]

49. This has been a very instructional thread! Thanks for posting you OP

[IndianaGreen]

51. Raccoons are a serious threat to chickens

One must also check the zoning laws to see if they permit the raising of chickens.

[pipi_k]

58. One of the reasons why we never got chickens here

in the woods...

I always tend to make pets out of animals I come into contact with... like Elly Mae Clampett, Jr.

I couldn't eat my pets, and I couldn't eat their eggs, either, since they would sort of be my "grand-pets".


In short, I have a hard enough time eating animals I've never met. If I had to depend on eating animals I have met, I'd starve.