be individuals who are familiar with chickens and feel comfortable speaking to groups of people, have the time to commit to the project, and with whom you feel comfortable collaborating. Other community allies may include neighborhood associations, master gardeners, local and slow-food advocates, schools, senior centers, animal rights groups, local chefs and restaurants, farmers, and food banks.
3.Build an Image. Give your movement a name. Then, with your teammates, start a mailing list of supporters and get the word spreading. Create a website, blog, or social media group (through sites such as Facebook and Yahoo), and invite citizens and local businesses to join, offering updates throughout the process and asking for help and support as needed. Getting endorsements from the community is important. It’s easy to ignore just one or two people who want to keep chickens—it’s hard for city government to ignore whole neighborhoods, vocal families, and local businesses.
Also, organize meetings for your supporters. Offer free screenings of films such as Mad City Chickens or Chicken Revolution for inspiration and encouragement. Find an existing chicken keeper who has a particularly docile hen that might be enlisted as a goodwill ambassador. You’ll be amazed how eager people will be to sign petitions, offer support, and join the project when they come face to face with a living, breathing, fluffy hen.
4.Get into Government. Educate yourself on how city government works and get to know your city officials, planning staff, or advisory board. If you can, identify individual members who may have a soft spot for the project and will take you under their wing. Having a pro-chicken ally within the city government can be extraordinarily helpful and speed up the process significantly.
5.Learn from Others. Learn the laws from other chicken-friendly towns and offer these as examples to your city council. What do neighboring cities’ regulations on keeping chickens look like? How many birds are allowed per residence? How far must the coop be placed from existing structures? Do your homework and come armed with information; you’ll inevitably need to navigate (legitimate) concerns about noise, smell, and curb appeal from citizens and council members. Be prepared to answer questions.
Also, find out how successful backyard chickens have been in those cities. If the movement is flourishing and complaints are at a minimum, you may ask for a letter of support from those cities to take to your council members. If you’re particularly savvy about governmental affairs, you may even draft a proposed ordinance for keeping chickens in your town (modeled on those cities’ codes) and offer it at a meeting.
6.Get the Media Involved. Contact your local newspaper and other city publications that may be interested in covering your story by targeting reporters who have an interest in sustainability and environmental issues. Also, accept offers to speak on the radio and similar public platforms. Be outspoken and spread the word. The goal is to garner widespread support and to put pressure on your city council to address the issue (they’ll be more likely to pass the ordinance if they see a majority supports it). Get the conversation going. Any press is good press.
7.Come Prepared. With the information you’ve gathered about chickens and other cities’ chicken-keeping laws, put together information packets to give to the city council member(s) who are willing to help you. If no one is willing, attend town hall meetings any time chickens are on the agenda. Gather your supporters and ask them to turn out to show support. Pick a few eloquent individuals to prepare speeches on certain concerns (odor, noise, disease, and so on) and ask them to speak when the council is open to public comments. Make your voices heard but be polite and stick to the facts. Show council members that you are serious and determined to see the project through. And don’t forget to invite the media.
8.Be Patient. Some cities are able to overturn ordinances in 6 to 9 months, but many take 12 to 18 months to see results. Once you get the ball rolling, don’t give up. Remember, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease” so be persistent but also compassionate and courteous. Do your research, be reasonable, and respectful, and you’ll soon have legal chickens in backyards all over town.
Being Neighborly: Proper Chicken-Keeping Etiquette
So your city’s codes check out, and you’re legally allowed to keep chickens in your town. Hooray and congratulations!
Before you start ordering chicks and building a coop, though, you may want to run your intentions by your neighbors. Those not familiar with chickens may be wary of even the mention of the barnyard animals. After all, chickens make noise (just a little) and their housing can smell (if improperly cared for). Your job is to consider your neighbors’ concerns and alleviate any unfounded fears. Assure them you’ll keep a clean coop (and follow through on that promise), because a well-maintained coop doesn’t smell. Also educate them on basic chicken behavior: Many people don’t realize that hens do not need a rooster to lay eggs, so you won’t need one around. (Most cities prohibit roosters, anyway, and roosters are the noisy ones.) Hens cluck and chirp contentedly throughout the day, but rarely do they make noise above a conversational speaking voice. Occasionally, an individual bird may sing her post–egg laying “hen song,” but it only lasts for a few minutes and is still quieter than a barking dog.
Finally, take aesthetics into account. A nicely constructed coop with attractive paint choices and window boxes or some minor landscaping can go a long way toward winning over wary neighbors. Keep it clean and tidy. Remember, your coop represents the modern chicken movement, and you are a representative of chicken keepers everywhere. Show your neighbors and prove to your town that chickens do have a place in every yard.
And when all else fails, shamelessly bribe your neighbors with the enticement of homegrown, pastured eggs with yolks so dark, they’re nearly orange. That might just be enough to win them over.
Chickens are among the easiest of animals to care for, but that doesn’t mean the birds are care free.
A Lifestyle with Chickens
Any new addition to a family requires some adjustment, and adding a flock of chickens is no different. The good news is that with a little preparation, chickens can fold neatly into nearly any lifestyle, any schedule, and any backyard or neighborhood.
Like any pet, caring for chickens requires a bit of daily attention. Whether you have a flock of 3 or 30, daily tasks include egg collecting, visual checks on all of your ladies for illness or injury, and a quick scan of the coop’s perimeter. That’s it. If you provide your flock with large water fonts and feeders, feeding and watering chores can happen every other day or so, and big cleanings can be reserved for one weekend in the spring.
One of the biggest adjustments to your lifestyle will take place in the evening, when the flock turns in for the night. Chickens instinctively seek shelter at dusk, and they’ll find it in their coop. To keep them safe from predators, they’ll need someone to lock them up in the coop each evening and open the coop door again each morning at daybreak. This chore isn’t time-consuming in itself; rather, it’s all about timing. Many predators strike right at dusk or shortly after, so it’s important to close up the coop just after the flock retires for the evening. The time for sunup and sundown will gradually shift with the seasons, though, changing the time of day you’ll need to close and open the door. For these reasons, it helps to create a system in place that works for you. Some chicken keepers install automatic coop door openers that close on a timer. These can be costly but really convenient. Some chicken keepers let their birds free-range only when they’re at home to watch them and are available to shut the door behind them each evening. Others build predator-proof outdoor runs that don’t require the daily opening and closing of the coop door at all (very helpful for those who work late or have unpredictable schedules). For those of you with families, this is a terrific responsibility to give to children and teens.
Another consideration
