The number of underground chickens is on the rise. As Eliot Coleman suggests in his book, The New Organic Grower, one step to assurance of a quality product is to know the first name of your farmer. Factory farms are out and backyard farms are in. As locovores go the next step in their quest for local they find their needs met by walking out the backdoor. My children love the well-worn path to the coop in order to bring in freshly laid warm smooth eggs for breakfast. We have assurance of good fresh food.
If you really think about it, people are allowed to have barking dogs, scrounging cats, and squawking parrots, but no scratching chickens? Many counties are pioneering this old/new idea and allowing some feasting backyard foul. You City chicks who live in Decatur do not have to worry about your flock, or yourself being cuffed and fined (just kidding, they don't make cuffs for chicken legs), but incorporated Dekalb country sticks to the 2 acre minimum requirement. I believe Cobb has a similar take on the subject. In Roswell, a bill was passed that no roosters could be kept, and lot size must be 1/3 acre or more. Beyond that hens are okay. And then of course there are neighborhood covenants...
Despite adversity, keeping chickens is a rewarding experience and one that I cannot recommend more. Mad City Chicks has some ideas about how to talk to your county. Here are my rules for the urban flock:
1: No roosters
2: Talk to your neighbors (make the surrounding peeps happy)
3: Keep the coop clean for goodness sake
4: Bare gifts of eggs
website for image: http://www.cafepress.com/barrysworld/5707001
No comments:
Post a Comment