Sarah and Kate

     It all started when my oldest wanted a cat.  I was not interested in another member of the family who expected me to clean up their poop so I told him we would mark it on the calendar and see if he still wanted a cat in a year's time.  That August date was coming closer and I knew he wouldn't decide that a fuzzy little friend was not something he wanted after all.  So I decided to tack a few requirements onto getting a new pet.  Things like learning to tie his shoes which was long overdue anyway and by gum he did it so now I was committed.  The day we got the cat, my second son concentrated all afternoon and by the time Daddy arrived home from work he proudly demonstrated his new skill of lace-tying and for this he demanded chickens.  Raise poultry in downtown Hamilton?  Why not?
    Seriously, I don't know what the big issue is about having chickens in the city.  The chickens we got this spring are quieter than the cat.  (We're actually on our second cat now, but that's another blog)  They are easier to keep than rabbits and they lay eggs.  They do poop, however.  But at least more of the humans around here flush their own now.

     Here is my blog-tutorial on how to get started (What fun!  A blog tutorial about a simple thing that you could google, or visit your public library and find more info than you need already.)
     1.   You need a covered hen house.  Raising Poultry the Modern Way (copyright  1975) suggests a floor space of 2.5 square feet per laying hen.  Then build a little outside run space to go with it.  There's a million different designs for this.  Some people use old Little Tykes houses to house chickens. Off to Freecycle you go.
      2.  Get some non-tipping feeders and water troughs.  My dad used to use a hub cap with a big rock.  Our ancestors did too, I think.
      3.  Order your chickens from a local feed store.  We got ours at the Copetown Quickfeed store.
      4.  We bought a prepared laying hen food ration since it had all the minerals and grit and so forth already mixed in.  The chickens looove greens.  They've already scratched and pecked all the grass in their outside run so the kids pick grass, chives, and swiss chard (which we grew more of, for "the ladies" as we call them).  Watch the chickens get all excited as you pick.
     5.  Some people let their chickens run "free-range" in the yard but I'm not that interested in stepping in poop with my bare feet, or in running down the street after a chicken.   We let them out once in a while which is lots of fun.

  My little urban farmers. They check the nesting boxes like some people (not me) check their facebook.   It really is a lot of fun and not rocket science at all.  Just go do it.