If the city allows residents to own chickens, I hope only my good neighbors consider them. I have/had a couple of neighbors who can't/couldn't take care of their cats... they ended up pooping in my yard all the time and chillin' on my porch. Minnie thought their poo was "kitty candy."
And, I guess since I grew up in farm country, I'm kind of over it. My mom would tell me these awful stories of my strong, big-boned, great-grandmother chopping off a chicken's head and then plucking out all of the feathers so they could have something for dinner. I think she hated chicken for years.
Still, I also think having chickens and eggs would be kind of fun. Cost-effective? NO. But, kind of fun. And maybe a little smelly.
The woman in the story is a friend of mine. Actually, I hang out with her teen girls! Our connection is adoption, so the girls and I will get together a few times a year and do something fun. Last time it was Silver Dollar City!
Anyway, back to the chickens. I like chickens. We had some when I was a kid. I am all about sustainability. I just don't think it's for me... but again, you're talking about someone who killed off her garden a couple of years ago. I'm hopeless. I will, however, gladly accept some chicken eggs!
OTHER CHICKEN TALES: Chickens embarrassed me as a kid. How can that be? In high school, our mascot was a rooster. Seriously??? It was like I lived in a mocumentary--Asian girl grows up in a chicken town...with a rooster as a mascot. We were the Roosters and Chicks. You can imagine the jokes when we played ball against the Carrollton Trojans or the Lexington Minutemen. Try telling somebody your high school mascot was a rooster and see the response you get... that's all I'm sayin'. A former co-worker at KY3 (news producer and blogger Chris Replogle, a rival from Nevada) gave me the nickname "Rooster"... and it stuck.
One more story-- I once hit a chicken while it crossed the road. It was like a cartoon. A poof of feathers flew up in the air, and I couldn't see out my windshield for several seconds. I'm pretty sure I had two girlfriends in the front seat (someone always sat in between the driver and passenger back then--don't recommend it!) We screamed like any 16-year-old would... then we laughed. That's what happens when you live 15 minutes out of "town" and on a backroad. To this day, I still slow down over hills on backroads-- you could run smack dab into a chicken, a cow, a tractor, or much worse if you're not careful.
2 comments:
If I still lived there, I would be at that meeting in a heartbeat! I've wanted to raise chickens forever. Even though eggs are cheap, I always feel kind of creepy buying them at the store, because I don't know how the chickens were raised, if they suffered, or had those dreaded lights that trick them into shorter days and nights. Chickens also help with gardens, eating pests, fertilizing and tilling soil. And they are so cute, just look at them!
Chickens from "urban/rooftop farms," free range chickens and those otherwise treated "humanely" produce eggs of no more nutritional value than factory farmed chickens. Despite claims of supporters to the contrary, they also taste no better (as blind taste tests have proven).
Factory farms are the most efficient and cost effective means of producing eggs (and meat and poultry in general). Chickens are generally dirty and noisy creatures. If you want to keep a few by all means have at it. But don't fool yourself into believing their eggs are better for your health or that you are somehow helping the environment. And prepare for lots of expense, clean up and noise.
I hope no one ever moves near me with chickens. As it stands I'm already subjected to an unceasing assault of dog barks and howls. Image the crow of cocks thrown in!
The environment is not in a ruinous state because individuals eat eggs from farms or have filament light bulbs in their homes. It's ruined because we live in a capitalist system organized for the sole purpose of creating profit for a filthy-rich handful of people.
People are not unhealthy and overweight because they eat eggs from a farm. They are overweight and unhealthy because they eat processed foods and are spectators (in sports, arts, etc.) rather than participants. That too is a direct result of the driving force of this country, this world, this economy: profit for the few.
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