Being a city chicken's not so bad. You don't have to deal with overcrowding (only three chickens are allowed at most Seattle homes) or the pecking order of a farm (just the occasional Labrador or child to contend with), and most likely your hip urban owners (they may refer to themselves as your parents) are either too granola or too chicken (no offense) to kill and eat you.
Instead, you get to live out your days in one of the nation's most educated and environmentally conscious cities, whiling away your time eating corn and the occasional slug, and laying eggs. In a nutshell, Seattle is a good place for chicks.
Ballard resident and Built Green executive director Aaron Adelstein and his wife, Tina Wang, manager of the Women's Center at North Seattle Community College, got their two chickens last fall after sampling the fresh eggs laid by their friends' backyard chickens. "The best part is, the eggs are such a different quality from store-bought eggs," says Adelstein. "They taste so rich and healthy."
Wang and Adelstein paid $10 each for their chickens -- the Red One (named for its appearance) and the Wyandotte (named for its breed) -- at Laurel Farm Supply in Bellingham, Wash. The couple also has a Labrador, who gets along well with the chickens, though Adelstein and Wang supervise the pets when the chickens are out of their coop, which consists of an 8-foot-by-4-foot shed and an attached 4-foot-square run.
"[Raising chickens] gives us a connection in our urban environment to a more rural lifestyle," says Adelstein, who adds that the chickens also provide excellent bug and spider control. And while he says that he might not have a problem with eating the chickens when their egg-laying days are over, Wang says no way.
Montlake resident Heron Scott's 4-week-old chicks, Boris and Buttercup (both female Sicilian Buttercup chickens), aren't quite ready to lay eggs or to leave the comfort of their indoor heat lamp.
Scott bought his chicks from the Issaquah Grange [1] for $3 apiece. They currently live indoors in a brooder (a transitional habitat for young chickens), under the warmth of a heat lamp, eating a cracked corn mixture, chick starter -- comprised of corn, soybean, wheat and mineral supplements -- and the occasional mango. However, a trip into the great outdoors over the weekend proved they enjoy pecking at earthworms, bugs, grass and rocks.
Chicks are typically ready to move outside at around 12 to 13 weeks old, and they usually begin laying eggs at 18 weeks. Scott, lead boatwright at the Center for Wooden Boats, built his outdoor chicken coop out of primarily scavenged materials, only having to purchase fasteners, hinges and chicken wire to keep out predators like rodents and raccoons.
For now, he considers the chicks to be his pets, but he claims that he is committed to eating the chickens in a couple of years. "I'm into the whole urban farming thing," he says. "To be true to being a meat eater, I should experience killing my own meat. Otherwise, it's hypocritical."
But when he thinks ahead to actually harvesting Boris and Buttercup, he concedes, "I may become a vegetarian."
Prior to adding the chickens to his household, Scott invested in two chicken books, "Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens" by Gail Damerow and "The Chicken Book" by Page Smith and Charles Daniel. He also made use of an excellent local resource for the urban chicken farmer, a "City Chickens" class offered by Seattle Tilth.
"We've crafted the City Chickens classes for anyone who's thinking about keeping chickens," says Karen Luetjen, executive director of Seattle Tilth, noting that the organization suggests taking the "City Chickens 101" class before delving into "Coop Design" and "City Chickens 201." However, the classes may be taken in any order.
Seattle Tilth recommends that new chicken owners read "Chickens in Your Backyard," by Rick and Gail Luttmann, which Luetjen says is the best resource for urban dwellers keeping chickens. The organization also recommends the organic chicken feed sold at Walt's Organic Fertilizer [1].
The benefits of raising chickens go beyond fresh eggs. Chickens can help provide natural pest control by feeding on pests and slugs in your yard. "If you want a lawn converted to garden, they will actually cultivate it for you," Luetjen says of the animals' ability to scratch up soil in preparation for gardening.
All that chickens ask in return is a nice place to live and lay eggs, and building a coop is pretty simple, says Luetjen. You can build one out of just about anything. One Ballard resident made the roof of his coop from an old restaurant sign and enclosed the sides with wire to keep out predators. He added an old dresser to the interior for the chickens to nest in and lay eggs.
Since 2002, Seattle Tilth has led a Coop Tour so that new chicken owners can glimpse the variety of urban coops to be found in the city, from simple structures to elaborate poultry chateaus. This year's coop tour has not yet been scheduled. Check the Seattle Tilth Web site [2] for current information.
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
