I don’t know about where you live, but the urban farming movement is alive and well in Spokane. My neighbors have a herd of rampant chickens in their backyard. When we first moved to this house it was like, “Oh cool. Look! Chickens!” and has kinda turned more into, “Oh look. There’s a chicken in (insert road, our yard, someone elses yard, on someone’s car, etc)” with a lot less enthusiasm.

Though I don’t, and likely never will have chickens of my own, I’ve learned a few things here and been forced to think about things a little differently from the whole experience. Such as:

Why did the Chicken Cross the Road? Because it damn well wanted to…and then it didn’t…and then it did…so it just stood there…

We’ve been watching the evolution of our neighbors’ chicken confinement project for about five years now. We’ve seen fences and chicken houses. And fences around chicken houses. (I know it’s called a coup, but chicken house is funnier) Yet still, when the weather is nice and the feeling is just right, they fly the chicken house…ok, coup works better here, they fly the chicken coup and take off for who knows where. They don’t. So they stand in the road until they are retrieved.

Chickens don’t lay eggs forever

I guess I’d never really thought about it. They live well passed the timeframe in their lives where they lay them. Most people apparently don’t think about this and wind up with unproductive chickens…which they usually wind up pawning off on local shelters.

I don’t have the gumption for egg collecting

While many love the idea of going out every day to collect their fresh eggs, I find myself a bit uneasy about it. The idea of walking up to a chicken like, “Yo. I’m gonna just reach under here and take your unborn child and have it for breakfast with some toast…”

Can’t do it. I just can’t.

Anyone have any experience with this? I'd love to hear your stories!