Secrets of the City

We have five chickens and live in the city. They are such delightful little things. And they give us eggs. We’re awash in eggs, I tell you!

Seriously, this must be a trend, because this is about the 10th article on it I’ve seen in the past few months.

A sign of the times or, as a German chicken would have it, zeitgeist.

Concern about rising prices and potential economic instability and a longing for a simpler, more self-sufficient past is manifesting itself in small-but-practical ways to make a difference.

I guess some people might just like chickens.

I’d like to see a return to full scale urban farming. I think we should start by razing every structure on Nicollet Island and turning it into an apple orchard and sheep farm.

You’re not potentially downwind from Nicollet Island, are you?

Chickens are evil birds in league with the devil. I don’t trust ‘em for a second.

The Rat did some work in a chicken coop. The ammonia from the droppings hangs in the air like a cloud.

And they bite.

I’m still amazed to remember that the last of Richfield’s working farms didn’t cease operation until the mid-1960s. Even as recently as 1993, there were still working farms in Brooklyn Park, too.

Can’t find an active link right now but chickens in the city have nothing over the fellow in St. Paul who stables his horse in his city-size backyard.

I gots chickens in my backyard as well — we’ve had ‘em for over four years. There used to be about 30 permit holders in Minneapolis (with many more doing it without a permit) then, but it must have doubled by now and we’ve become something of backyard chicken consultants.

Oh, and as I’ve mentioned before in a previous post, a couple of our ladies are local film stars.

here’s a local google group

I’m pretty sure BP still has a working farm- Lazaroff Gardens. It is much smaller now, but I had a lot of friends who lived there while growing up. I just lived a few houses down the street. I didn’t know until I was much older that not every girl grew up hanging out on a migrant farm in the summers.

I’d have chickens, but our yard is way too small and way too exposed. And there is no way my husband would allow that. Something about me getting interested in things then losing interest and dumping the whole project.

I’d like to see a return to full scale urban farming. I think we should start by razing every structure on Nicollet Island and turning it into an apple orchard and sheep farm.

Funny you mention that, because I made this for a thread about Phyllis Kahn and the DLS Stadium on Nicollet Island a while back:

Hops, wayne, we need hops!

Why plant barley without hops? It’s a hopsless situation!

Hops springs eternal…

the chicken / fowl exhibit area @ the State Fair is my new favorite. Who knew that there were so many beautiful chickens? I’d like to do a side by side taste test of some of those critters to see how much difference their physiological differences make in their flavor. And the coops are cleaned regularly, so the smell isn’t so bad.

I think that chickens and humans are the 2 most likely species to have originated extraterrestially…we were likely their servants in a galaxy far far away.

Aliecat: “Chickens are evil birds in league with the devil. I don’t trust ‘em for a second.”

They’re dinosaurs. Well, the closest living relative thereof, and in a direct lineage to the therapods. Heck, these days they say that the Velociraptor, those critturs of Jurassic Park fame, actually had feathers.

yeah, kc, they’ll live to be about 15 years old, so you’re in it for the long haul if you do it . . . well, unless you like chicken stew.

I gots chickens in my backyard as well — we’ve had ‘em for over four years

I love chickens. I want to have a few in my backyard. My only concern is what do you do with them in the winter. I have a very large back yard can you just let them run around and will they come back to a house to roost.

i like chickens….their delicious!

Grote: “…so the smell isn’t so bad.”

“It’s called a cloaca! And it smells like THIS!”

If you recognize that reference then may be the one other person who watched Andy Barker, PI. I miss that show, and I hope you do too, other watcher.

Which came first, the chicken thread or the egg thread?

Jason blamed ethanol for rising egg prices. This article (love the graphic!) points the finger at China as well as ethanol and biodiesel. This study (funded by the ethanol industry) cries “fowl!”

Just remember, if a chicken offers to pay for your meal, let him.

i like chickens….their delicious!

Their delicious what? What do they possess which is delicious?

The real story there, bob, is the lack of perspective many people have about the cost of food. $2.25 for a dozen eggs! I can’t make cookies! Christmas is ruined! The woman actually had to cut back on the number of pizzelles she was going to make — six eggs will make 150 of ‘em — what did she save, like $2?

swandog, they will go to the coop by themselves when it starts to get dark, but I wouldn’t recommend letting them go entirely free range in the backyard, unless you like stepping in a pile of poo on your back steps every morning.

As far as winter time, extra care — heat lamps, insulated coop, ect — is definitely required. For a primer, geek out on the google group I linked to . . .

The real story there, bob, is the lack of perspective many people have about the cost of food.

In the eggs/ethanol story, I would agree, spaceman. That said, I get sticker shock at the grocery store, too. It’s when ethanol is used as a universal scapegoat — without evidence or proof –for high food prices, higher gas prices, world hunder or even food illness outbreaks is what I find upsetting.