As a visit to my Cluckingham Palace
coop proves, small-scale chicken raising is compatible with modern city life.
In
the span of a few years, I’ve gone from weird to trendy. Why? I keep chickens —
in San Diego.
Here’s
one sign of how times have changed.
In
2009, the local newspaper’s editorial page excoriated me for trying to change local
laws to allow chickens. Last year, the same paper featured me (along with my
hen Diana) in a cheery lifestyle feature article on urban farming.
“Chickens
are smelly.” “Chickens are noisy.” “Chickens just don’t belong in the city.”
These are some of the reasons people used to give for prohibiting backyard
chicken keeping in urban areas.
And
you know what? Thousands of birds kept together in a small space are smelly
and don’t belong in a city. And roosters are noisy. But hens
don’t need roosters in order to lay eggs, and a family doesn’t need more than a
few hens to provide enough of them. Plus, a few hens are much quieter than your
average Chihuahua.
Several
years back, I stirred up a local controversy to see if I could get my city’s
chicken laws changed. A reporter for the local news showed up at my house to do
a story on the matter. After seeing my chicken coop — Cluckingham Palace — and
meeting my “royal” ladies, Diana, Victoria, and Elizabeth, she made a
confession.
When
she arrived, she expected to find a smelly coop that attracted bugs. But she
found an odorless, bug-free coop with lively, sweet chickens that provide me
with pest and weed control, and eggs. They were surrounded by a thriving
garden, fertilized by my chickens’ manure.
I’ve
gone months without cleaning the chicken coop and it never smelled or attracted
bugs. So long as you add enough bedding (I favor wood chips and dead leaves) to
the coop, the chickens’ manure breaks down into compost. It will never smell.
As for the bugs: What? Chickens eat bugs. Any bug dumb enough to make its home
in a chicken coop won’t last long. (Ditto for mice.)
After
eating the fresh eggs laid by backyard chickens, you won’t be able to return to
the store-bought kind. Even the expensive, fancy varieties (organic, cage-free,
etc.) don’t compare with backyard chicken eggs. I think the difference comes
from the chickens’ diet. Backyard hens eat chicken feed, of course, but they
also forage for grass, bugs, and even the occasional lizard.
A Mother Earth News study found that eggs from chickens
raised on pasture contain less cholesterol and saturated fat than store-bought
eggs, along with more omega-3s and vitamins A, D, and E. In short, backyard
chicken eggs can hardly be considered the same product as what’s found in the
supermarket.
Perhaps
this is why San Diego’s recent effort to legalize backyard chickens was funded
by a grant for combating obesity.
When
I first got my chickens, I was on the wrong side of the law. I felt it was an
act of civil disobedience, as I was taking a stand for my family’s health, the
environment, and animal welfare. Pampered backyard hens, after all, have it
good compared to their caged factory farmed counterparts.
Just
a few years later, backyard hens are legal in more cities. When my parents met
my feathered pets, they commented that I’m “just like Martha Stewart!” Maybe,
but that’s probably the only thing we have in common.
It’s
great to see the tide changing. Herbert Hoover once promised Americans “a
chicken in every pot.” That didn’t turn out so well for him. But a chicken
flock in every yard could prove a winning goal if Michelle Obama wants to
take her healthy-eating campaign to the next step.
OtherWords columnist
Jill Richardson is the author of Recipe
for America: Why Our Food System Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It. OtherWords.org