“What are you building?” the cashier asked as we paid for several sheets of plywood and some 2×4s. When we told her she said, “a lot of people are building chicken coops this summer.”
City ordinances are changing to allow for backyard chicken keeping. From Portland to New York City, ordinances are being revised, spelling out what will be allowed as cities respond to pressure from residents for permission to raise chickens. (See ordinances for information about your city.) Most cities prohibit roosters (this video shows why) and backyard slaughtering, and limit the number of hens allowed and the placement of coops near homes and property lines. Many prohibit backyard chickens altogether, though if neighbors don’t complain residents raise them anyway.
Urban chickens were common in the 19th century, and helped supplement family diets and budgets during the Great Depression. While the current urban chicken movement did not emerge in response to economic woes, it may play a part in reshaping how we think about ourselves as consumers. The trend is part of a growing movement encouraging people to buy local or raise their own – whether beans and corn or eggs and honey.
Blogs from chicken-keepers suggest that most of them raise chickens in support of sustainable, simple, and healthy eating. But people keep chickens for multiple reasons. Some are protesting the inhumane lives hens in battery cages at factory farms live. Some want to be more connected and in control of food growing processes that sustain them.
For Mark and me, getting chickens is also how we hope to control the larvae that become pear slugs that eat the leaves off our fruit trees. We like that chickens will scratch through our garden in the fall after we’re done harvesting, eating grubs and garden leftovers while pooping out rich fertilizer. The eggs will be a nice addition. Since we aren’t big egg eaters, we’re thinking of implementing a Saturday breakfast for friends and family. We’ll sell or give extras to neighbors and colleagues.
Caring for a few hens is part of our bigger commitment to eating “just food.” Just food is a tangible way to live out faith. Since we eat every day, our multiple food choices support the flourishing or contribute to the diminishing of others’ well being. Just food pays workers a fair price for their labor (so we gave up bananas after researching the human-rights abuses in the banana industry, although I ate my fill of them in England, where fairly traded bananas are readily available). Just food is respectful, nurturing, and humane in the care and treatment of God’s creatures. Just food supports sustainable farming practices that minimize harm to the soil, water, and air (which do not characterize typical corporate farming and food processing practices). Just food tastes better – on the tongue and in the soul.
Our chicks are two and a half weeks old. They live in a big cardboard box in the garage, lined with a burlap sack and leaves until they get big enough for the coop. We’re about done painting it, which matches the beehives, which is ridiculous, but a reminder that we’re all in this together – we need each other. We’ll do our best to deny predators chicken suppers in exchange for eggs. We’ll give hens a great area for foraging and dust bathing post-harvest, and we’ll get grub control and fertilizer in return. Meanwhile the bees will pollinate the garden and orchard, and we’ll feed them in the winter to compensate for taking some of their honey later this summer. All this gives me daily reminders that God “so loved the world” (John 3:16) and sustains it all – people, bees, chickens, even the soil that makes all this eating and living possible.
