Who doesn鈥檛 like the idea of home-grown fresh eggs laid by hens scratching in the backyard? But reality and the ideal are often far apart.
Municipalities in the Capital Regional District allow the keeping of urban chickens to varying degrees. Bylaws differ, but they generally regulate such things as the number of hens that can be kept and minimum distances between chicken houses and human habitation. Gender-discrimination is rampant 鈥� the raucous early-morning calls of roosters are not appreciated in most urban environments.
Conforming to regulations is only the first hurdle. Raising chickens sounds idyllic, but there鈥檚 more to it than turning the bird into a pen, tossing them food scraps and then harvesting the eggs.
Chickens require a proper diet to produce eggs regularly. Scratching around in the grass and eating food scraps can be part of a healthy and varied diet for them, but without calcium-rich laying feed, they will produce few or no eggs. Feed them too much of the wrong kind of food and they鈥檒l get overweight or sick.
They are tempting targets for cougars, raccoons, raptors and stray dogs. Their feed will attract rats, mice and more of those raccoons; their droppings, while useful in gardening with the right handling, will provide an environment for disease if not properly cleaned up.
They start laying eggs at about 20 weeks and will produce well for a couple of years, but production tapers off as they get older. While it鈥檚 not a huge problem yet, animal shelters are seeing an increase in abandoned chickens.
The usual fate for a menopausal chicken is the stewpot, but some places 鈥� Victoria, for example 鈥� prohibit the slaughtering of chickens in an urban yard. And many people can鈥檛 stomach the thought of eating a family pet, even with a savoury sauce and a sprig of rosemary.
Too many animals fall victim to the 鈥渋t seemed like a good idea at the time鈥� syndrome. Animal shelters across North America are becoming increasingly aware of this. Chickens are discarded when they are no longer useful, when their care becomes more than the owners anticipated or simply when the novelty wears off.
That attitude has resulted in the feral-rabbit problem, exemplified by the colony of black rabbits inhabiting the no-longer-green strip between the off-ramp and highway at the Helmcken Road-Trans-sa国际传媒 Highway interchange. The animals don鈥檛 belong in that environment and are rapidly stripping the vegetation there.
Abandoned hens don鈥檛 face the same fate 鈥� the instincts for surviving in the wild have been bred out of them 鈥� and they will quickly die if left on their own.
If an urban-chicken project is done right, the benefits are many: nutritious and flavourful eggs, a way to recycle kitchen scraps and keep down insects, charming birds that can easily become pets. But it should be known that it requires work and a clear retirement plan, even if that retirement is served with dumplings.
A chicken in every pot? Good idea. A chicken in every yard? Only if it鈥檚 a committed relationship.
