Cheep Chic In suburban backyards across America, chickens are coming home to roost by Joanne Kaufman TH LAMPERT’S LIZABETH
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r, Siena, daughter, wanted a horse. “But that would uld have been expensive,” says Lampert, mpert, the owner of a public-relations elations agency just outside San Francisco. ancisco. Instead she went to a local h hay-and-feed ay-and-feed store and bought the he 10-year-old a pair of chickens. “Then “Then Siena thought they were getting getting lonely, so we got three more.” re.” Lampert pays her daughter $2 $2 a day to feed them, herd them em back into their coop every night, ght, and collect their eggs, generally enerally two or three a day. “The eggs are amazing,” mazing,” Lampert says. “They ey taste rich and creamy. The he yolk—it’s very orange. nge. Siena used to ask for cereal al for breakfast. Now she wants a veggie omelet.”
cluck, cluck here and the cluck, cluck there of Old MacDonald’s farm to their urban and suburban backyards. Municipalities like Detroit, perhaps concerned about the possibility of noise, fowl odors, and d and d abandoned ab bandon d ed d chickens chi hickens k , prohibit them. Others, including Spokane, have significant restrictions on coop construction. But a long list of cities—including Seattle, Chicago, New York, and Portland, Ore.—are perfectly fine about being home for the (free) range, at least for hens. “Many people want to become more self-sufficient,” observes Rob
‘My daughterr used to ask for cereal for for breakfast. Now she wants nts a veggie omelet.’ Lampert is among ng the thousands who have vee muddied the line of demarcation n between urban and rural America merica over the last few years, who’ve ve brought the
8 • November 14, 2010
Hen party: Besides laying eggs, chickens eat bugs and weeds— and provide fertilizer.
Ludlow, founder of the community website BackYardChickens.com. “Having a handful of egg-laying hens in a relatively small yard allows people to participate in the grow-local movement moveme ntt without having to has no precise move.” Ludlow Lu figures on the number of backyard-chicken owners in the backyardhe created his U.S., but when w three years ago it had only website th members; now, he says, there 50 membe 70,000. are more than t According to Ludlow, “There’s Accordi a growing awareness of how fun and easy it is to raise backyard plus a growing chickens, p realization that chickens are a multi-purpose pet. They eat the multi-purp in your yard, and bugs and weeds w generate fantastic fertilizer.” they gener Of course, they also provide your breakfast. But generally not your never eat one of dinner. “I would w chickens,” Lampert says. my chicke Moyle and her Tonya Langford L of Portland, husband, Thatcher, T Ore., have half a dozen chickens, including a Rhode Island Red, a Dominique, and a Brahma, whose Dominiqu egg-laying capacity is six a peak egg-l day. “It makes us feel closer to the ma earth. And we thought it would be nice for our daughter,” says Tonya, the vice president of a Web-design company, referring to Web-desig 5-year-old Una. Thatcher, a planner, went so far as to financial p buy some architectural plans off Internet and build a the Intern contemporary-looking coop with contempo a clear roof. roo And his is hardly the henhouse in town; only high-style highPortland eeven holds an annual “Tour de C Coops.”
PHOTO BY SHUTTERSTOCK
Backyard Chickens
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