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Subject: CBC Great Chicken Debate Coverage
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http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/foodbytes/2010/04/qa-lesley-kelly-on-the-dos-and-donts-of-raising-backyard-chickens.html

Q&A: Lesley Kelly on the do's and don'ts of raising backyard chickens

• April 1, 2010 8:16 AM | Comments0Recommend15
• By Tara Kimura

Much has been written about the backyard chicken debate in recent weeks, with supporters and critics actively debating the pros and cons.

Readers weighed in on the debate in the comments section of a recent feature we posted and discussed issues including cleanliness, noise and co-ops.

We raised some of these concerns with Lesley Kelly, author of The Little Chicken Book, in an email interview. Kelly moved to Toronto 10 years ago and raises chickens and ducks. She says she decided to raise backyard chickens in part because she wanted her daughter to know where her food comes from. Kelly shares her tips on raising backyard chickens and also discusses some curious characteristics of chickens in the interview below: 

Where do you stand on the backyard chicken debate?

In the 10 years that I have been raising chickens, I have not come across any reason why they could not as easily be raised in the city as in the country with a few constraints:

1) No roosters. Roosters are only necessary if you want to produce more chickens. All roosters crow to some degree depending on the breed and the individual bird (although there are some that have a slightly less annoying crow than others!). Hens are quiet and only cluck loudly if there is a threat or if there is a rooster around to make them compete against each other and behave silly (funny how that applies to people too!).

2) Cap the number of chickens. Since the average chicken during her peak laying age lays about one egg every 25 to 26 hours, two chickens would lay about a dozen eggs a week. So you could keep the number of chickens allowed down to say...five or less (I'm just pulling that number out of thin air as a minimum - more would still be very doable) - that would still give you 30 eggs a week! Even when egg production drops or is not yet up to peak (a hen starts laying when she is five months old and peaks at around a year and a half), you would still probably get a good two dozen a week - more than enough for most families.

How much work goes into keeping your own chickens? Who should NOT consider raising chickens in their backyards?

As with any animal, they have to be kept clean and fed and watered. Also, they have to be kept safe because they are susceptible to being preyed upon, a fenced-in coop area is necessary. However the area doesn't have to be large - about six square feet per chicken. If you can't provide a safe home for them, then don't get them.

As to the poop issue - well, my dogs generate more poop than a couple of chickens would. The average chicken generates anywhere from 1.5 to 4 ounces of poop per day (depending on who you listen to). So say you have 4 chickens and they produced the full 4 ounces each day (and I really think that that is the maximum for a really large bird), that means you would have seven pounds of poop per week. The average 15-pound cat generates about 15 pounds of kitty litter/poop per week!

Also, because chicken poop is compostable (ie. it's NOT the same as carnivore poo from dogs and cats), you can put it out in the green bin. If you have your own compost pile in your backyard, it can go on it directly and it encourages compost activity. Chickens produce most of their poop (80 per cent) at night when they roost so it's easy to scoop it up (it's all in a little pile underneath them). Very convenient.

There are also folks who use the old salmonella bacteria as an argument against having chickens. As with ANY animal, the feces contain dangerous bacteria. Dog and cat feces contain campylobacteria which can cause similar symptoms to salmonella. Chickens have salmonella. But as with ANY animal, if you wash your hands after cleaning up the poop, you'll be safe. Chickens do not have salmonella floating around on the outside of them (it's in the intestinal tract), so as with ANY animal, unless you touch their bum area where the poop comes out, you won't pick up anything. Proper hygiene keeps you safe.

Many of our readers have raised concerns about chicken coops attracting rats - is this a valid concern? How can people who keep chickens protect against this threat?

Chickens are no more apt to attract rats than rabbits in outdoor hutches, or domestic pigeons in coops. As with rabbits and pigeons, chickens are food for a lot of things (cats, dogs, raccoons, rats, or any other predatory omnivore). The most important thing to keeping chickens (or any other outdoor animal) is to have a "varmint-proof"' coop - that means having a door that locks tightly enough to prevent predators from working their way in and a floor that they can't dig into from outside. There are tons of plans for effective coops on websites around the world.

Backyard chickens are the norm in just about every country in the world except Canada and the U.S. so there is no reason to not be able to keep your household and your chickens safe from intrusive predators. If you feed your chickens chicken food, then you must keep it locked up in a safe place too. You wouldn't put your dog or cat food outside for raccoons and rats to get into, so why would you do that with your chicken food? I know people who buy bulk birdseed for their bird feeders and they have to keep it locked up for the same reason. Rats are not an issue as far as I'm concerned.

Some of our readers have raised the suggestion of having a chicken co-op - like a community garden to meet the needs of people who don't have much space. Have you ever heard of such an arrangement?

There are chicken co-ops all over the place!! They've been around in the UK and Australia for years, and I know they are fairly prevalent in some states as well. Just do a search on the web and you'll find a ton of listings.

You describe chickens as having "delightful" and "loyal" temperaments in your book - two qualities some people may find surprising. In what way are the animals delightful and loyal? Are there any other remarkable characteristics of chickens? What surprising information did you come across while researching your book?

Different breeds have different temperaments, just like dog breeds. A couple of the more "delightful" breeds are Silkies and Brahmas. They are gentle, and even young children can handle them easily. As with most animals, the more you handle them, and pay attention to them, the more they will respond to you and accept and enjoy your company.

Most "loyalty" in chickens comes from the fact that they are very food-based. If you provide the food then they will follow you anywhere. However, they can also be timid, so they do get to know their owners and trust them rather than just anybody with food. And there are many stories of people who have single chickens as pets. Those birds become very attached to their owners and prefer to be with them. I don't know if this is just flocking instinct, but the end result is that a chicken raised as a pet will behave as a pet.

I'm not sure what would be considered a "remarkable" characteristic. Chickens are birds, first and foremost. But they can't really fly very well, so they can run like heck! I think they used a running chicken as the model for the running dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. If you hold a chicken upside down, it will become very docile and happy. I don't know why.

Chickens can't move in the dark (it's some sort of weird survival mechanism), so when darkness falls they are stuck wherever they happen to be. That's why they will always "put themselves to bed" by roosting up high just before dusk. I had one rooster who would spend 15 minutes every evening working his way branch by branch up into the top of our walnut tree. In the morning he would swoop down (they are excellent gliders) in one jump. His instincts were too strong for him to accept the chicken coop as a reasonable place to sleep. Some breeds are incredible moms (that's where the phrase "mother hen" comes from). I had one Silkie hen who even raised a duckling. She was a bit upset when it kept trying to swim, though (chickens don't swim)!

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2010/03/12/f-backyard-chicken.html

POULTRY

Urban battlegrounds

The backyard chicken debate

Last Updated: Friday, March 12, 2010 | 5:19 PM ET Comments64Recommend64

CBC News

Cheap, healthy food from a low-maintenance bird, or a smelly, rodent-drawing mess? (iStock)Got a chicken in your backyard? You're not alone. Across Canada and the U.S., the backyard chicken movement has mobilized — and in many cases, it's getting henpecked by local authorities.

That's because there's no hard and fast rule when it comes to keeping chickens in residential areas. While Victoria, B.C., and Niagara Falls, Ont. allow them — and the city councils of Halifax and Vancouver are weighing them — Toronto, Calgary, Waterloo, Ont. and a whole host of other communities forbid them.

In fact, some residents have recently been charged for keeping chickens within city limits, the latest being a Calgary mother who claims she just wanted to feed her family the freshest eggs possible.

This piecemeal approach to legislating backyard chickens has given rise to some pretty heated discussions around keeping poultry. It has also spawned a number of vocal pro-chicken advocacy groups, with names such as the Halifax Chicken Group, The Canadian Liberated Urban Chicken Klub (also known as CLUCK), Backyard Chickens and Poultry Canada, Omelettes for Everyone and the Waterloo Hen Association.

These groups are on a mission to promote what they believe is a great way of life: an inexpensive, healthy way to obtain pure food from a low-maintenance bird.

Pros: a natural choice

Backyard chicken supporters believe there's nothing healthier — and cheaper — than raising egg-laying chickens.

"Chickens lay eggs all the time, so if you're feeding a family of six you would have a source of eggs that were fresh, healthy and right on your doorstep," Ian Aley, with the Toronto non-profit group FoodShare, told CBC News.

Because chickens eat table scraps, they reduce solid municipal waste, their proponents argue. As for the waste chicken produce, it can be used as fertilizer, eliminating the need for chemical fertilizers. (iStock)

According to the Waterloo Hen Association, chickens are also environmentally friendly. "Chickens are productive … they provide eggs for personal consumption and fertilizer for gardens," reads their Facebook page.

Other groups, such as Halifax Chickens, add that the eggs laid by backyard chickens are free of pesticides and antibiotics used in commercial chicken farming. "I think it's really important for [my daughter] to grow up knowing where food comes from," said Lola Brown, one of the members of the group, which numbers 500.

Because chickens eat table scraps, they reduce solid municipal waste, their proponents argue. As for the waste chicken produce, it can be used as fertilizer, eliminating the need for chemical fertilizers.

Saving money also comes into play. "As food prices go up, people are looking for affordable ways to feed themselves," reads the Waterloo Hen Association page. Those who raise chickens don't have to fork over $4 for those free-range eggs at the supermarket.

Cons: a smelly mess, rats

Many residents who have found themselves living next door to someone who keeps chickens aren't as keen on the idea.

One reason is that other animals, such as rats, mice or raccoons are frequently drawn to their feed. Halifax resident Pauline Murphy said she wound up with rats in her basement two years ago when one of her neighbours had chickens.

"When the chickens left the neighbourhood, the rats shortly afterward disappeared too, and we've had no evidence of them since," she said.

Another complaint that's often cited is noise. While one or two chickens aren't too noisy, 20 birds — the number that's often allowed under city bylaws — can make a ruckus. While the crowing of a rooster at sunrise is quaint when visiting a farm, it's not so lovely when it wakes an urban family daily.

And there's the concern over mess. "Unfortunately, not everybody would keep their coop clean," writes one CBC News.ca commenter. " Chicken coops are very smelly."

Smell aside, public health officials also worry about the spread of disease, which can occur if bird carcasses or feces are disposed of improperly. Salmonella is one bacterium that can be passed from bird to human if a person comes in contact with bird feces or eats infected eggs.

As well, the spread of avian flu around the world in 2005 highlighted how easily a virus can spread through bird and human contact. According to the World Health Organization, this virus, which attacks the respiratory system, caused 241 deaths between 2003 and 2008 worldwide.

Support in poll

So where do most people stand on the backyard chicken issue? As of March 12, 2010, 70 per cent of readers who participated in CBC.ca's informal online poll on keeping backyard chickens supported the idea.

Many are lobbying their local governments to enact bylaws allowing backyard chickens, while putting in place rules to limit their numbers and to ensure they're raised and handled properly.

The latest pro-chicken march, organized by CLUCK on March 10 in the streets of Calgary, had 100 people in attendance.

"Especially since this works in huge cities like Vancouver and Seattle, why can't we have it work in Calgary, where we're even more agricultural friendly?" said Jennifer Cavanagh, who was in the crowd.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2010/03/12/f-backyard-chicken.html#ixzz0jv5avlQp