Reply to Backyard chickens-who has them and do your neighbors care?

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[quote=Anonymous]18:21 again.

I wanted to ask 13:57 from a few days ago where s/he lives, so I can not buy there.  Yikes.

To clear up some questions, yes, tiny green eggs happen.  Auracaunas and related breeds are popular with hobby keepers.  They lay blue and green eggs, and there are bantam (miniature) breeds.  Also, hens lay small eggs at first, larger as they grow.  Small and Jumbo grocery store eggs come from young and older hens, respectively.

Backyard hens can lay years longer than industrial birds - diet makes a difference.  Chickens aren't vegetarian, and they don't naturally eat lots of starchy grain.  Naturally-fed birds eat mostly insects, greens and berries and have much higher fertility and overall health.

Temperament is a function of breed and nurture.  Some breeds are very docile, and most hobby keepers start taming the birds as chicks or pullets.  Araucaunas are closer to wild than the familiar barnyard breeds, and they're not the best choice for newbies who want the birds to be able to free-range, but hand-raising will counteract that.  "Mean" birds and flocks with unusual pecking problems usually have poor living conditions or resolvable social issues within the flock.

Avian flu is just not an issue, according to the CDC and common sense; human transmission occurred in crowded, miserable, filthy, disease-ridden industrial chicken-keeping operations, not small, healthy backyard flocks like ours.  I'm not French-kissing the girls.  Also, shockingly, I wash my hands after handling them, just as I do after walking the dog.  They're vaccinated and

The poop quantities cited are wrong.  The whole flock makes less daily than a medium-sized dog, and chicken poop breaks down quickly.

We have no trouble finding help for vacations - it's very little work and people enjoy it.  Chicken people also help each other out.  One young friend fell in love with our girls and will be taking them when we move.  We can also set up the coop for 3-4 days unattended, if needed, although I feel more comfortable with someone checking in on them.

As for property values, when our local group analyzed local municipal codes, we found that those who permitted chickens skewed higher, and the wealthiest neighborhoods all permit them.   Seattle, Portland, NYC - not exactly hurting.  And even in Rust Belt cities like Cleveland, which recently allowed chickens and bees, the push is coming from hot, high-value neighborhoods.  Bullshit class-anxiety-based statutes are for peons.

And the moronic comments about the poors... just... sigh.  Keeping chickens was a completely ordinary activity for middle-class homemakers late into WWII.  Plenty of period housekeeping books cover the basics.  People who are doing it these days are not saving money, because supermarket eggs are painfully cheap.  It's about quality.  I'm saving about $2 a dozen over farmers' market eggs, but I'm still paying 2-3x as much as I would for industrial eggs.  I mean, our dog is cheaper and better than a security system, but we don't have a dog because we're too poor for ADT.

All of which is seriously beside the point, because legislating away attempts at self-sufficiency that can help mediate the impact of poverty is shameful, inhuman, indefensible behavior, especially in one of the richest regions of the country.  I don't want to live near people who think like that.
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