Disappointed About the Chickens

Dear Editor,

I had hoped to read that the pro-chicken people would be crowing in victory but, alas, they were defeated, this time by negative clucking. This does seem like a strange outcome in a very rural, agriculturally-dependent community in The Middle of Nowhere.

I will stick to the position I put forth at the previous council meeting: Backyard chickens would be a good learning experience for kids and an opportunity for 4-H and Scout projects.

I was a farm kid and my dad made a deal with me. He said, “I will buy 200 Leghorn pullet chicks and 100 White Rock cockerel chicks. You raise them for me as a 4-H project and you can sell the cockerels for your pay.” I agreed and did so for three years starting at age 11. He invested in a brooder house equipped with a kerosene-fueled brooding stove. We built a fenced-in area so when the chicks were old enough they could go outside. To be truthful I sometimes grumbled as I lugged those pails of water from the well, hauled bags of chick starter and made sure they were locked up each night so the skunks, weasels and foxes couldn’t get them. This was quite an improvement over the former method of borrowing broody Buff Orpington hens to incubate our Leghorn eggs. (Leghorn hens are high-strung, good at producing eggs but not so good as mothers!)

The learning received included record keeping, chicken health and welfare, culling, judging and, most importantly, responsibility. Although the project ended with the sale of the cockerels and the pullets being sent to the laying coop to do their job in life my job was not done. I was responsible for preparing and crating the eggs which were sent every week to the Land O’ Lakes processor.

This is my positive take on poultry and I do not consider even 300 chickens as grossly unsanitary or a threat to anyone’s health. It is a matter of management and at our farm the flock generally stayed near the barns, pasture or wood lot. (Our dog may have had something to do with that!). Four to six hens in an urban setting should not be a problem since they are confined. (If not, they soon would be dead.) We should not let unpleasant memories from a very long time ago rule our thinking. Times and circumstances do change.