Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Urban Farming Urban Farming, Chapter 10: Henpecking My Way to Poultry Progress
Posted by Carrington Fox on Tue, May 19, 2009 at 6:35 AM
While the greatest obstacle to my proposed chicken coop (short of the obvious legal prohibition of livestock in the urban district) has been my farming-agnostic spouse, I think I made some progress last week convincing him that farm-fresh eggs really are better than store-bought.
My friend Carrie Ferguson Weir, founder of Los Pollitos Dicen (The Little Chicks Say) children's Spanish T-shirt line, recently brought me a dozen guinea eggs from her non-urban farm in Kingston Springs, and I sprung them on my brood for breakfast.
First impression from the little Foxes? Small. Yes, children, guinea eggs are about 70 percent the size of the eggs we usually buy at the store. (No, that's not just a really big-handed person in the above photo, which I swiped from Carrie's blog, Bilingual in the Boonies.)
First impression from their egg-scrambling father? Hard. Yes, honey, a guinea shell is tougher than the paper-thin specimens you usually crack. Just lean into it a little.
Most impressive was the taste. With a high yolk-to-white ratio, the guinea eggs were unexpectedly dense and golden. Stirred with a little milk, they yielded a fluffy, almost custardy, scramble, not to mention a slightly begrudging acknowledgment that maybe a chicken tractor behind the garage wouldn't be such a bad idea after all.
In short, one breakfast of fresh guinea eggs makes a more effective case for raising chickens than any amount of henpecking ever could.
Comments (16)
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Is it definitely illegal in the urban district? Because I know some folks down the street from me who have a coop, and they did a lot of research before they started. Maybe they just got all the neighbors on board, and it's a big group secret...
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The yellows of fresh eggs are so much more vibrant than the store-bought imitations.
We've had chickens for a couple of years now and even the best organic eggs at the grocery store seem pale and tasteless in comparison.
The biggest issue we have faced is predators...hawks, coyotes and now a new family of foxes (no relation). Being non-farmers we want the chickens to have the best life possible...and that means letting them free range during the day and getting locked up in a really solid chicken coop at night. however our fox friends don't keep night hours, so lately the chickens have been locked in a 10 foot long four foot high coop all day and night. Just something to consider. Might actually be easier in an urban environment...but make sure you get a big enough coop. Either way be prepared for chicken death...after all everyone loves chicken.
A conversation over at Tiny Cat Pants yesterday notes that guineas are particularly good at eating ticks and don't tear up your yard like regular chickens. After that scary article I read on Lyme Disease yesterday...hrm...
Carrie praised her guineas for that reason too, but she warned that they are a little more fragile than the bigger breeds. She related the death of one of her guineas due to, wait for it, a stuck egg. I am having a hard time shaking that image.
"Stuck eggs" are also known as "egg binding" and they're not an infrequent occurance if you raise poultry. But there's a lot that you have to get used to that isn't pretty if you have farm animals: disease, injury, predation. Fresh eggs are nice, but the work isn't for the squeamish.
So here's how to deal with an egg-bound hen (they're easy to spot because they don't want to get up and eat, get a little glossy-eyed, and (duh) are a bit swollen: put a glove on, dip your finger in some mineral oil, and put it in the bird's cloaca. It should be easier to help her with the bound egg.
For those of you who want to make a smart-assy comment about chicken fingers, etc., this is what it takes to give you fancy organic eggs, so grow up. And it's the humane thing to do.
DG -- you're not helping my case for chickens -- I hope my reluctant co-farmer is not reading this. (But, on a more serious note, thanks for the good advice. As a mother hen myself, I can't bear the image of an egg-bound bird.)
Carrington, egg-bound hens aren't all that common, but it does happen rarely, and it's easy to deal with. And like with most things livestock or poultry related, you lose your squeamishness very fast.
I have full confidence that you, the rooster of the house, and the rest of the brood would do a great job. After all, fresh eggs are a great reward. On the other hand, if you're interested in fresh-killed poultry, there's quite a bit more trauma to overcome.
(Cue the "Fox guarding the henhouse" jokes.)
My father, who would be 85, always talked about bringing the chickens home from the store with cones around their necks and then helping kill them. That's only one generation ago. My children, on the other hand, believe that chicken comes roasted, in a plastic purse with convenient handles.
My family bought my childhood home in Green Hills from a dentist and family who kept a chicken coop in the back yard. They were such a genteel family that now I wonder who did the chicken killing.
Throughout Sylvan Park and East Nashville, I hear about the often cited -- but undocumented -- "two chicken rule," but, unfortunately for would-be urban chicken farmers, the Metro Codes Department prohibits egg-layers in the entire Urban Services District (and most of the General Services District). When they told one of my constituents to get rid of his birds, they cited M.C.L. § 17.16.330. Here's the text:
17.16.330 Other accessory uses.
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B. Domestic Animals/Wildlife. Native and exotic animals and common domestic farm animals, defined as Class II and Class III wildlife (Tennessee Code Annotated 70-4-403), which are kept outdoors for any purpose other than agricultural business, shall be an accessory use to a residence. The following land use development standards shall apply.
1. Zone Districts. Such animals shall only be permitted as an accessory use in the RS80, RS40, RS30, RS20 and R80, R40, R30 and R20 residential zone districts.
2. Location. The property containing the residence and farm animals/wildlife shall not be located within the urban services district.
3. Lot Size. The minimum lot size shall be five acres.
4. All pens, runs, paddocks, pastures and other open outdoor areas shall be fully enclosed by fencing. Barns, stables, stalls, and similar shelters shall not be located within two hundred fifty feet of a residential structure in a residential zone district.
5. Such accessory use shall obtain all necessary permits from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Tennessee Department of Agriculture, and/or the metropolitan department of health pursuant to Title 8 of the Metropolitan Code of Laws.
(Amdt. 1 with Ord. 98-1268 § 1 (part), 1998; Ord. 96-555 § 4.4(I), 1997)
I'm currently working with Cassi Johnson at Food Security Partners and several urban farmers around the city to put together an ordinance to begin reforming our city zoning laws to make them more friendly to agricultural activity within the urban core. We're starting small with making tomatoes and okra SAFE and LEGAL -- currently ALL community gardening that involves any exchange of $$ (e.g. CSAs) is illegal in the USD.
Eventually, we hope to expand to open up the laws for chickens and bees.
In the meantime, since Carrington lives in the 24th, I'm going to assume that this whole blog is just a work of fiction to entertain readers!
That's great info, Jason. Thanks for joining in, and thanks for the clarification. A lot of this comes as a surprise to me.
Thank goodness I checked my blog stats or I would have missed this fabulous conversation and your hilarious post.
Carrington, start a campaign to allow urban chickens who live in a tractor coop -- the kind you can move around so they can free-range.
OK, about the guineas and their stuck eggs and other causes of death. It is our first year with them and they are funny and wonderful and they do eat lots of ticks. We live on thickly wooded property here and I got tired of getting eaten alive.
The negatives: I have coop-trained the birds, which means they come in at night, but they are not domesticated chickens. They are wild at heart and because of this, I could not catch my poor little hen until she got so sick she didn't fight me. I am a Cuban-American girl from Miami. I had no idea eggs could get stuck in chickens or other fowl. So, I figured it out with the help of a vet, but it was too late. Shameful and awful thing, let me tell you. She was beautiful.
They also are not afraid of cars. They are afraid of every other single thing that moves and they squawk and shout at everything. But cars, no. Two have been hit. Oh, and one just disappeared. Probably nabbed by a hawk or she's on a nest somewhere in our woods. Hoping it is the latter.
You can see my beauties here: http://tinyurl.com/p5e462
Metro really needs to change the rules. Having the birds is wonderful and having the eggs is a delicious delight. And, chickens free-ranging in a moveable run will keep bugs and ticks down too.
My neighbor sells eggs and 4-pound roasters she processes herself. Yell at me if you want the hook-up.
And I am calling DG next time we have a stuck egg issue.
You ever look at a guinea, Carrington? It is NOT a chicken. Unless it's a chicken in clown face, wearing dotted swiss.
The birds actually fly for short distances; make strange, loud noises that will scare the living daylights out of intruders; and are not the friendliest critters around. The temper of a goose, but with a very sharp bill.
I don't have any farm animals. I have a few pet chickens in a chicken tractor behind my house. They don't smell, they make no noise(unlike my neighbors 3 yippie dogs), and if they happen to provide my family with breakfast in a few months, what's the harm?
