Urban chicken farming craze
Thursday November 20, 2008
Categories: Agrariana
I done told you so! Backyard chicken-raising is sweeping the nation. So says Newsweek. Excerpt: "It's really not that crazy to think that people are doing this," says Owen Taylor, the urban livestock coordinator at Just Food, which operates the...
Filed Under: chickens, urban chickens
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Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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Anyone living in certain parts of Queens knows first-hand the pros (and loud cons) of urban chicken farming!
MY Covenant of Restrictions for our subdivision do not allow them, but I have the second largest track at 9 acres on a culda-sac(sp?) with no neighbors so I think I can squeeze a small coop about 300 feet back snuggled in some trees.
Yes, this is indeed why people have called them 'yardbirds' for generations.
Soon there will be designer/boutique poultry breeds as accessories for yuppies everywhere.
How did you figure out your rooster is a trans-sexual?
You did know before you got chickens that absent a rooster it is very common for one of the hens to start acting like a rooster? Right down to crowing.
Ahh the things that get left out of Disney films.
So whats a body to do if they live in a neighborhood with a covenant that prevents chickens? Is there some way to have secret chickens?
Anybody got any sneaky ideas?
Fortunately all it takes is a handful of poisoned feed over the fence to put a stop to all this Third World disease spreading nonsense.
Not to rain on the victory garden parade or anything, but what about the assertion I read recently: that it can take more energy to grow locally than to transport from a more favorable clime? The example given was vegetables in England vs. imports from Spain.
I'm not suggesting that this principle applies in Dallas -- but it might apply for me in Massachusetts! I recognize that it's possible to live on local to New England produce, if you're willing to eat nothing but stored apples and potatoes through the winter -- but I'm not sure I'm willing to stunt my kids' growth by feeding them no greens for large chunks of the year.
Or am I just showing my ignorance?
but I'm not sure I'm willing to stunt my kids' growth by feeding them no greens for large chunks of the year.
Or am I just showing my ignorance?
Cabbage stores well, some other lettuce greens can be transplanted into tubs indoors or even in a root cellar. But I do think the kids will protest a diet of cabbage, apples, and potatoes ;)
Scotch Meg - I think part of othe problem here is folks insisting on "all or nothing". That is to say, you shouldn't stunt your kids growth by not feeding hthem greens in the winter. But there are 7 months of the year where even up here in Wisconsin you can get locally grown, in season greens of one kind or another. The other 5 months, we have to supplement from down south. But those other seven months cut down on transport costs. Plus I can cut down on the number of things I need to import in winter by putting by what I can in the summer. It's not about going 100% local and 0% import: at least it shouldn't be.
Anyone have any advice on how to convince a wary spouse that this is a good idea?
Chris Mill
s
Undecover chickens wrote: November 20, 2008 12:31 PM. So whats a body to do if they live in a neighborhood with a covenant that prevents chickens? Is there some way to have secret chickens?
Anybody got any sneaky ideas?
NO ROOSTERS. Keep your flock small and simple, just small layers - no meat chickens.
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