Comments on: Gratuitous pet chicken blogging: The new digs

By: Marinda

Marinda — Sun, 25 May 2008 15:41:00 +0000

My ‘Girls’ are cuurently on repreive in Salt Lake City in a upperclass neighborhood where Hens are legal. I live just one block south of the city zone in the Salt Lake County (on a third of an acer!) where keeping Hens is not Leagal. GO FIgure. I have been in a democratic process for almost 4 months now trying to change an ordinance to allow this. Our county Mayor Peter Corroon is CONSTANTLY talking about being “GREEN” and “MORE SUSTAINABLY” He has yet to help in this process of making this legal. I have been told I have to visit all 11 community councils plus all their planning commisions and have unanimous support. HELP! ANy suggestions.

By: Gina Spadafori

Gina Spadafori — Thu, 08 May 2008 02:39:55 +0000

They will be given access to the veggie garden under supervision. I understand chickens LOVE tomato worms!

The yard outside the fenced veggie garden is going to be off-limits to the hens. I don’t want them interacting with the dogs. Heather I would trust absolutely (mostly because she’s closing in on 12 and can’t be bothered to chase anything), but the younger dogs … hmmm … not taking any chances.

By: Caveat

Caveat — Wed, 07 May 2008 21:47:41 +0000

Cool!

I’ve been thinking of getting a few chickens, they are such beautiful birds.

You did a great job on your chicken yard and your birds are lovely.

Good luck with your new hobby!

By: Deb

Deb — Wed, 07 May 2008 21:40:36 +0000

Wow, your girls do have quite the estate! Are you planning to let them range the garden and back yard under supervision, Gina? After all, we do know chickens can be readilyclicker trained (chicken camp), and will respond to voice commands. I can see you now, taking your girls on a grub hunt through the squash, potatoes and onions!
Every good chicken yard comes equipped with a hen house, with built in boxes for the hens to nest in. Sometimes individual hens will lay in separate boxes, sometimes they will lay their eggs in just one or two. Sometimes one hen will consistently set the eggs. This is only a problem if you have a rooster and don’t want more chicks. The boxes make egg collection easy.
Last year, the City of South Portland, Maine made it legal for people to keep at least 6 hens ( no roosters). Nancy can correct me if I am wrong. I think more urban areas ought to allow chickens. I just paid $2.59 for a dozen free range organic. Besides, seasoned chicken manure is a tomato plant’s friend.

By: rose-aka the Drew fan club

rose-aka the Drew fan club — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:47:10 +0000

The Hens are so pretty and the girls seem to be friendly to each other already too! Wow!
I hope you show photos of where they lay the eggs — so people like me who grew up in a big city can see it… I have no idea, do they make nests or do their people do it for them?

By: Marcy

Marcy — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:14:48 +0000

Your hens are beautiful, Gina.

They look like a lot of fun too! Enjoy.

By: C.L.H.

C.L.H. — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:54:27 +0000

There’s a lot of information out there about the benefits of chickens. Quite possibly you could present this information to City Hall and effect a change. Letting your city officials know what the ordinances in other cities are might make them change the laws of your city.

On the gardening scene, there are kitchen gardeners who maintain that British cuisine met it’s demise when the park-like trend for the grounds of large houses won out over the kitchen garden designs that were popular at Versailles and other great houses in France. Maybe that’s what happened in this country. We stopped growing vegetable gardens and forgot what good food was.

By: Eucritta

Eucritta — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:45:27 +0000

CLH, I suppose I could sneak a couple of hens under the radar and I doubt anyone in the neighborhood would know or care if they did. But I’d also be putting my vet in the position of providing care for animals she’d know were illegal, and in the event someone *did* complain, I’d be stuck in the middle of a potentially very nasty dispute. Local cases involving pet pigs, geese and goats have not turned out at all well, so there’s some recent precedence to go by.

I’d much rather see the laws and regulations be rationalized first, though at present I don’t think there are enough folks like me who are concerned about it to outweigh those who feel it would erode public health and property values.

By: Eucritta

Eucritta — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:29:43 +0000

I think you’re right — there may be evidence of that in the 1950s and 1960s garden as well, with its plain lawns, broad pebbled concrete patios, and regimented floral borders. And in the old neighborhood compact for our 1952 house, no vegetable gardens are allowed! Good thing it expired in the 1970s!

But I also think there’s another, related, irrational belief at play, that ‘farm animals’ are somehow dirtier and more of a threat to public health than species historically kept as pets.

By: C.L.H.

C.L.H. — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:22:57 +0000

Eucritta, would you be able to convince city hall that two chickens were PETS instead of farm animals? After all, you’re not living on a farm. The city of Portland, Oregon allows three hens without permit. Madras, Oregon is going the shortsighted route of banning chickens in the city limits. They want to be “modern”. I think the biggest thing is just to make sure all of your neighbors are okay with it. As long as they don’t complain, who will report you? I find it’s always easier to ask forgiveness than permission. I WILL be stringing a clothesline to the deer fence around my vegetable garden this summer. It’s against the CCR’s in my neighborhood, but so is every parked RV and the neighbor’s garden shed right on my property line. I’m prepared to be very feisty this year when it comes to my “carbon footprint”. Once again, why can’t we just do what makes sense????