Ain't nobody here but us chickens

Sorry to have been away for so long. I've been distracted by bright, shiny objects.

We have some updates on the push to allow chickens in Northfield. My City Hall sources all tell me that: 1) the new pro-chicken language is just part of a larger Code update for the City. Unless someone picks it out, it is likely to pass without incident. Woot Woot! 2) There are several folks who are a part of the decision making process that really want this to pass and will stand up for it. Double yay! Finally, reading between the lines, I also inferred 3) there's no need (and please don't) raise a ruckus; it will only bring attention to something that will otherwise be a non-issue.

This blog is open to all so I don't know if everyone here and on Facebook is friend or foe to our feathered friends. If you are a friend, I would ask you not make a stink or a big deal out of this issue. I am going to do the same. I plan to stay in touch with the process at City Hall, and when it is approaching the vote, I'll let everyone know. At that point, I'll probably send a letter of support to my Councilmember but other than that, outside of this blog you won't hear a peep or a cluck outta me. If you are not a fan of chickens in Northfield, please educate yourself further before making a final judgment. If your neighbors keep chickens and they bother you, talk with them to see if something can mitigate the issue. If you think chickens belong in the country, think again. Many families kept a small flock of chickens in town for their own use; it's only in the last 40ish years that that's really changed. Don't believe me? Just ask The Google. Finally, if you think chickens are poopy, yucky and dirty, then I can't imagine what you think of toddlers.

As for my situation, I've been cleaning up the coop twice a week, adding more pine shavings that normal (especially in the wet weather these past few weeks), and trying to make things better between my neighbor and us. I wave when I see her. I've even stopped throwing empty beer cans in her yard. But I don't know that it's helping. We were never BFFs but now it feels awkward. Our yard is fenced but not private at all so she can see all of our goings-on and such, and it just feels uncomfortable to be 10 feet away from someone who dislikes you. On one hand, I don't want her to think she can dictate what we do and don't do. On the other hand, living in (a) community means not holding on to one's individual rights so hard that it chokes the life out of compromise and cooperation. And there is the real question of whether this neighbor will make such a stink that she will fight the new code (I've already overheard her talking to mutual neighbors about our chickens; she failed to persuade them that the chickens were a nuisance).

All that said, we are strongly considering sending our chickens to the farm. I don't mean that euphemistically. I mean a real farm. We had already been considering the future of the fowl before all this brouhaha. We are facing more school and work responsibilities and, as I've written, it does take some time to care for your chickens responsibly and well. Out of everything in our life, the chickens are the easiest--emotionally, practically, and financially--to cut out right not. I plan to keep chickens again in the next few years; hopefully, when our child is older, she'll want to raise chick(en)s.

Sending the hens packing is a little sad. Two of are chickens are just chickens--meh. But I have a real affinity for Tallulah (the barred rock) and will miss her. She makes the sweet chicken cooing sounds, is a solid and reliable layer, and is the friendliest of the three. It's also going to be an adjustment to have to buy eggs. Just last week, I was making pancakes and needed one more egg. I just went out to the coop and--voila--an egg. I'll miss that the most.

What to Expect When You're Expecting Chickens

I spent two years thinking about getting chickens before taking the plunge. Hubby was not keen on the idea but knew it was pointless to argue further when Backyard Poultry magazine started showing up in our mailbox. (He still makes fun of me for reading it cover to cover while I only flip through the pages of The New Yorker to look the cartoons.) Hopefully this blog can help connect chicken-keeping folk, but since I didn’t know anyone else with chickens in town I got most of my information from books and websites. Here’s what I found useful; hopefully, you will, too.

I found most of my information on the web but did read several books as well. (Check the library. Last I looked, there were several “backyard chicken” type books and even one that was about building a coop.) The three books that were the most helpful/memorable were:
1. Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens: if you want precision and depth, you’ll find it here. It covers everything from basic care to grinding your own feed. It may be too much information for a small backyard chicken enthusiast.
2. Chickens in Your Backyard: A Beginner’s Guide Rick Luttmann It is what it claims to be: a beginner’s guide. This is a good place to start and will help you identify what breed of chicken(s) you want, how to build a small coop, and care for your birds.
3. Keep Chickens: Tending Small Flocks in Cities Barbara Kilarski The author is probably known as the crazy chicken lady of Portland. (She has a camera in her henhouse and watches them on television….whoa.) Her book is part informational, part love story of when woman met chickens.

As aforementioned, I subscribe to Backyard Poultry magazine. http://www.backyardpoultrymag.com/ It has a good mix of information, an ask-the-expert section, and feature a different breed of poultry (including stinky ducks and gross, dumb turkeys) each month. While I enjoy the magazine, it’s clear that they haven’t decided who their key demographic is. They struggle to cater to everyone along a wide spectrum from urban elites to 10-year-olds in 4H, and it can be disjointed and painful to read sometimes.

Websites
Identifying which breeds you like
Look at hatcheries to see the various breeds and decide which ones you like. I’ve found that my two heavy girls (Buff Orpington and Barred Rock) fair better in the winter than my lightweight Australorp. I know other people with non-winter-adapted birds, but I’d recommend getting cold-hearty birds if you are in Minnesota. Also take a look at the various chicken supplies (feeders, waterers, heat/light sources).
http://www.strombergschickens.com/index.php
http://hoovershatchery.com/html/monthlyspecials.html
http://www.welphatchery.com/
http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/1996-12-01/Heritage-Chickens.aspx (Heritage breed that are dying out)

Websites geared towards urban/ backyard chicken keeping
http://www.mypetchicken.com/
http://www.backyardchickens.com/

Caring for your chickens (from day-old chicks to hens)
http://www.mypetchicken.com/backyard-chickens/chicken-care/guide-toc.aspx
http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_circulars/Circ477.html
http://www.poultryhelp.com/links.html
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKPoultrySites.html
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/1981-03-01/Ten-Commandments-For-Raising-Healthy-Chicken-Part-II.aspx
http://shilala.homestead.com/sitemap.html

Feeding your chickens
http://www.plamondon.com/faq_feed.html

Butchering chickens (please note that butchering chickens in town is illegal in Nfld)
http://www.gatewaytovermont.com/thefarm/slaughter.htm

Coops and Tractors
http://www.demesne.info/Garden-Help/Keep-Chickens/Planning-Coops.htm
http://www.middlesexdesign.com/chickens/coop.htm
http://home.centurytel.net/thecitychicken/tractors.html

Blessed Are the Beaked, for They Shall Inherit the Earth

Dan Olson came over. He seemed open-minded, and we had a honest talk. I told him that I’d talked to my neighbor directly. (As a sidenote, I also spoke to another neighbor yesterday; I approached her with some trepidation since she will call a spade a spade. Anyhoo, she said she hasn’t ever smelled or had a problem with the chickens.) He seemed pleased and said that that often helps in neighbor complaints. We stood by the coop and talked for nearly 20 minutes. I pointed out where I’ve planted some mock orange and told him I am willing to grow lavender around the coop, too. I gave him a rundown of the upkeep we do: rake out the poop weekly, compost it, and add fresh pine shaving. And twice a year, I rake their run (outdoor area) down to the dirt, shop vac out the coop and bleach the hooey out of it. I then asked him what the ordinance says regarding chickens and told him I was confused about the messages I was getting. Here’s the deal: the code was written thirty-ish years ago when people “didn’t do this sort of thing” so the code is not explicit about chickens so they (City) are interpreting it as best as they can. He said that he’d told me that chickens were not permitted because he interprets chickens as being agricultural and agriculture as not being allowed—save crops and forestry—in the residential zones of town. If, however, he looked at another part of the muni code, residents of Northfield may have three animals. More than that requires a permit from the City Council. Since we have a dog and a cat, I asked if I needed to request a permit. He said I could just wait on that at this time. For now, he said we should try to solve the smell problem. And his assessment of that problem? “While I’m no expert in chickens or what they should smell like, I don’t really smell anything.” As confetti and balloons dropped from the sky and I stepped up to the podium to accept my medal, he cut my celebration short by adding that my neighbor told him it was in the hot summer months that it was really noticeable. I wanted to yell “THE EMPORER HAS NO CLOTHES!” but refrained instead asking what he thought would help, short of evicting the chickens. He thought I should try cleaning up the feces (yes, feces—it was kinda cute) twice per week during the summer months. He asked if I was willing to do that.


After all this fuss and stress and worry, he wants to know if I can swing another couple minutes each week composting my chickens’ poop?!


“Sure thing. That’s no problem, Dan.”


Queue the balloons and confetti. Look for me on a Wheaties box in a store near you.

Mad As A Wet Hen

As you know, this all started last Thursday morning with a phone call from Dan Olson (Northfield’s City Planner) who told me I wasn’t permitted to have chickens. By Friday morning, I’d heard from several people who had contacted their City Councilmembers and had been told that Dan’s interpretation of the ordinance was just that: his. It wasn’t necessary shared by others in City Administration. I was encouraged by this development. Later in the day, I received another call from Dan in which he conceded that he could interpret the ordinance differently and then my chickens would, indeed, be permitted. However, that would not solve the problem of my neighbor’s complaint that my fowl smell foul. He suggested that he come over Monday to see (sniff?) my chickens and we could talk about how we might mitigate her complaint. I agreed.


I was stunned that we had gone from chickens-are-not-permitted-in-residential-areas-period-no-discussion to baby-we-can-work-it-out in just over 24 hours. Stunned but angry. Isn’t the whole point of bureaucracy that there is a fair and even application of the law instead of one person’s arbitrarily decision-making? Dan Olson chose to lie to me. He told me point-blank that I was not allowed to have chickens when, in fact, I am. Why didn’t he suggest coming over and talking about my neighbor’s complaint in the first place? (For that matter, why didn’t my neighbor just come talk to me in the first place?) This whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and frankly, I don’t know if Dan Olson’s offer to help is in earnest. Is he really interested in assessing the validity of my neighbor’s complaint or is he just coming over determined to find a problem even if no problem exists?

After stewing all of Friday evening, I decided to cut through the b.s. and go talk to my neighbor myself. Dan couldn’t tell me who it was but I had a pretty good idea and decided to approach her directly. I did. It was her. And in sum, she said that my chickens stink, and she doesn’t like smelling, hearing or looking at them.

My chickens smell and the coop I spent months carefully designing and building is ugly. Ouch.

Do my chickens stink? Obviously, I don’t think so and I spend time taking care of the coop to ensure this. But maybe I’m just sensitized to it. Maybe I’m like those women who walk around smelling like they applied an entire bottle of perfume while not noticing that everyone around them is gasping for air. With this question in mind, and also feeling that I had nothing to prove, I did not spend the weekend cleaning their coop or giving the hens baths and pedicures. I added some pine shavings, per usual. Changed their water, per usual. And went on with my life. … OK, that last part is untrue. I didn’t go on with my life. I worried and fixated on this all weekend and asked everyone I knew if my chickens were stinky. The verdict? No.

Let me be the first to say that those polled were my friends and family; as such, they support me and may be telling me what I want to hear. Can I trust their opinion? After all, they let me spend all of 8th grade believing that my electric blue eyeliner and orange eyeshadow were hawt.

I guess we’ll just have to see what Dan Olson has to say tomorrow.

Chickens Are For Me! Are Chickens For Thee?

Tell people that you keep chickens and you’ll get a range of responses. Some people are amused, some are curious, and some people will tell you you’re nuts but most everyone wants to know why: why do you have chickens?

Other than the oh-what-the-heck-let’s-try-it factor, there were a handful of reasons and benefits to having chickens. First and foremost for me is the fact that commercial chickens live miserable lives. The bucolic image of chickens roaming the pasture eating bugs and clucking is not the reality of most commercially raised layers. (*Full disclosure: I’m not a vegetarian. I eat meat. I’m don’t consider myself an animal-rights activist. I do believe that animals ought to be raised and slaughtered humanely.) Layers, chickens that are used for their egg production as opposed to meat birds, get to live an average of two years. They are often debeaked (it’s exactly what it sounds like), crammed into cages where they cannot move, walk or even spread their wings, have no access to the outdoors, are pumped full of antibiotics, and have to endure having light on 18+ hours a day year-round to manipulate their bodies into laying more eggs, more often. That, my friends, is the real cost of the dozen eggs you can get at the Kwik Trip for 49 cents. The photo below is not from PETA or any other animal rights group; it’s a stock press photo and it shows a pretty run of the mill commercial chicken farm. It don't think it's meant to be controversial, and yet, it shocks me. That’s their life. 24-7. Until their egg production drops off and they are butchered. I don’t want to be a part of condoning that.

My second motivator was my realization that I’m pretty disconnected from the food I eat. The hens in my yard are a good reminder that the food I eat didn’t just show up on the shelves of the Co-op. Someone or some animal created, grew, tended, harvested, packaged, shipped, and placed it on those shelves. A lot of resources and energy went into it all. Essentially, having chickens reminds me to think about where all of my food comes from, and what it takes for it to land on my plate. And in thinking about that, it becomes a lesson in gratitude. Being grateful for the animal. Grateful for the grower. Grateful that I live in a time and place of plenty. Grateful that I have choices about what to eat. They also teach my family about biology, life, death, food production, and, hopefully, responsibility for caring for other creatures. All those lessons from just three little hens.

Of course, we also keep them for their fresh, delicious eggs. My hens good health, sunshine, and varied diet of grass, bugs, grain, and whatever other kitchen scraps we give them results in delicious eggs. I can’t describe how bland and tasteless I find commercial eggs now. It’s like going to Oktoberfest in Germany then coming home and drinking a Pabst Blue Ribbon (apologies to any PBR fans out there). There is no comparison. I also appreciate that the hens eat slugs. My hosta garden has never looked so good. Finally, they are interesting and entertaining to watch: fighting over a scrap of food, perched in a row on their roost for the night, chasing our impertinent dog across the yard.... who needs TV with entertainment like that?

So do I think everyone should keep chickens? No. If you’re willing to do the work to care for them, great! If not, don’t even bother. Just because it may be(come) your “right” to have hens in town doesn’t mean that there is not responsibility involved. Are you willing to provide a dry, warm enclosure for your hens? Will you clean it out on a frequent and regular basis for your birds health and out of consideration for your neighbors? How about providing sufficient food and clean water and collecting eggs daily? That may or may not sound like a lot but those are the realities of responsible chicken keeping, in my opinion. There are also practical and—don’t laugh—emotional aspects to it. How would you feel if a predator killed one of your birds? Do you travel much? If so, who will care for them? Are you willing to spend money on chickens? (Pine shavings for their bedding and odor control, food, supplies for building or buying a coop, etc.) How long do you plan to keep them? Egg production is indefinite but declines with age. Where will they go when you don’t want them anymore? Are you willing to butcher them? Eat them? These, too, are good things to consider before keeping chickens.

If you don’t want to keep chickens, you can get some of the benefits in other ways. First and foremost, support your friends and neighbors if they want to keep chickens and do so responsibly. Let your city council person know that you support allowing chickens in town. Second, like it or not, we vote with our dollars. Buy eggs that are healthier, tastier, and that come from hens that have a high standard of living. I’ve used the word “commercial” in this post, and that feels sloppy on my part but I don’t know what word to use. What I mean by that is eggs that don’t tell you where they are from, what the birds were or weren’t fed (including antibiotics), if they had access or were raised outdoors, etc. These are (the majority) of the eggs sold at Cub, Kwik Trip, Wallyworld, etc. There are better options! There are a number of farmers locally who offer fresh, healthy, delicious eggs from hens who are raised humanely. Just Food Coop sells a variety of them and many larger grocery stores are starting to carry them because of customer demand. Finally, when you buy them, make sure you know what you’re getting. We’ve probably all had the experience of reading a product’s food label (“Sugar-free!”) and then, while munching away on said product and reading the box a little more closely, see that it didn’t mean quite what you thought it did (No sugar, but loaded evaporated cane juice…oh bugger). Labels on eggs aren’t any different so educate yourself about what cage-free versus pasture-raised or free-range means. I can’t find the USDA’s definitions on their website or a neutralish, objective source but here’s a resource from the Humane Society http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/confinement_farm/facts/guide_egg_labels.html

If you think chicken-keeping might be for you, I’m putting together a list of resources for chicken-keeping folk and will post it to this blog soon.

Deciphering the Code

It seems I'm not the only one who thought that chickens were allowed in town. Many of you have sent me links to the ordinance that appears to allow chickens. As I wrote yesterday, I too read that part of the code and thought the same thing; however, like much of life, it's all about interpretation. So that we're all on the same page, let's look at the Code here and where the differences in interpretation lie.

Here's what I, and many other chicken-keeping folk, read that led us to believe that chickens were allowed on our properties:

Animals: Sec. 10-39. - Permit to keep.
No person shall keep in a residential unit or residential site more than three animals over six months of age without securing a permit from the city council. (Code 1986, § 1010:30(2)(1))

Sec. 10-40. - Keeping prohibited animals.No person shall keep, maintain or harbor within the city limits any of the following animals: (1)Any animal prohibited by state or federal law.(2)Any nondomesticated animal or species, including but not limited to the following:a. Any skunk, whether captured in the wild, domestically raised, descented or not descented, vaccinated against rabies or not vaccinated against rabies. b.Any large cat of the family Felidae such as lions, tigers, jaguars, leopards, cougars and ocelots, except commonly accepted domesticated house cats. c. Any member of the family Canidae, such as wolves, foxes, coyotes, dingoes and jackals, except domesticated dogs.d. Any crossbreeds such as the crossbreeds between dogs and coyotes or dogs and wolves, but this subsection does not include crossbred domesticated animals. e. Any poisonous pit viper such as a rattlesnake, coral snake, water moccasin or cobra.f. Any raccoon.g. Bears and badgers and other nondomesticated animals not listed explicitly in this subsection.

After reading this, it seemed to me that I could keep up to three chickens. (I was also amused that the code explicitly prohibits keeping ocelots, which given the number of them in existence, is much like prohibiting the dodo bird...but I digress.) My interpretation was incorrect because while I consider them domesticated and/or pets (sort of), it seems that chickens are deemed "nondomesticated animals" by the City and thus prohibited (see the last line of the paragraph).

Adding insult to injury, chickens are doubly banned by the zoning uses section of the code. I live in the R2 (residential-2) part of town.* Agricultural uses are limited to "crops and forestry." Again, the interpretation here seems to be that chickens=agriculture.

Ready for some good news? It seems that some chicken-keeping folk have been working with the City to change the Code and allow chickens in town! Dan Olson was good enough to send me the draft language that the City Council will consider later this year. I don't know what part/section of the code this will change (permitted animals or zoning) but I don't think it matters since it's explicit about what is allowed.

(A) Keeping of Chickens
(1) Property owners are permitted to raise and keep chickens on all properties of five acres or more in size without complying with the requirements of this section.
(2) For properties that are less than five acres, the keeping of six adult chickens is permitted provided that:(a) The principal use of the lot is as a dwelling;(b) No person shall keep any rooster;(c) The chickens shall be provided with a covered enclosure and must be kept in the covered enclosure or a fenced enclosure at all times; and(d) No enclosure shall be located closer than 25 feet to any residential structure on an adjacent lot.

Up to six hens, no roosters (too noisy!), keep them fenced in/contained so they aren't tearing up your neighbor's garden, and keep 'um housed 25 feet away from your neighbor's house/garage. Looks pretty good, eh? No more confusion over interpretation; it's pretty clear that chickens would be welcome in Northfield. If it passes. I don't know how big of an if that is.

On that note, does anyone know who helped draft this language? Word on the street is that it may have been Aaron Wills; I'm trying to verify that and find out what his take on this whole issue is. If he's been working on this issue with the City, my inclination is to follow his lead and make as much or as little noise as he thinks is necessary. Clearly, other people have been working on this and I'm not interested in trampling their good work.
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Should you have a free evening, you can read the City's code from Alcoholic Beverages to Zoning here http://library.municode.com/index.aspx?clientId=13439&stateId=23&stateName=Minnesota

*It's a big file but you can see the zoning map here: http://www.ci.northfield.mn.us/assets/z/Zoning-map---March-2009.pdf

Crying Fowl

This morning, I received a phone call from Dan Olson, City Planner of Northfield.* He advised me that he'd received a complaint about our chickens. Well, the complaint wasn't really about the chickens, the complaint was that there are chickens in our yard. And that's illegal.

Like many folks in town, I keep chickens. Three of them. Girls. Hens, rather. Sydney, Dixie, and Tallulah. They lay yummy eggs. They scratch around their coop, eat the slugs in my hosta garden, and generally entertain me with their wacky chicken antics. They also remind me that food doesn't just show up on the shelves of the grocery store. And as I learned today, they also make me in violation of Section 34-840, subsection C, line 7 of Northfield Municipal Code which limits agriculture in my zone (Residental 2) to "crops and forestry." (Note: I did check the Muni Code before getting chickens 2 years ago, but looked in the "prohibited animals" section that does not mention chickens and thought I was in the clear...alas.) Dan asked me to comply with the City's code, which I suppose means get rid of the chickens. He also told me that the City Council is considering changing code to allow folks in residential areas to keep hens, but that it won't be considered before this fall.

And a blog was born.

The purpose of this blog is to educate folks about chickens and keeping chickens and to promote Northfield's adoption of new municipal code that allows hens in town.

Updates to come.

*Dan Olson was doing his job, and my disagreement is not with him. He was polite and and emailed me the draft language for the new code. :)