Check out this article by Kim Severson that was in the NY Times. It’s about people who have joined the local food movement and have gotten chickens. There are a bunch of people who have gotten in over their heads and have dumped their chickens off at animal shelters.
Keeping chickens has been wonderful for me, but it doesn’t come without its challenges. Most recently I’ve had a raccoon in my yard, which actually got its claws on my chicken Edie. She has a nasty gash on the back of her neck, but I guess it could have been much worse!
I wrote a post about why NOT to keep chickens. If you are considering keeping chickens, please take a look at it and see if you still think you want to do it. If you are going ahead with getting chickens, please get in touch with your local animal shelter or pet finder to see if they have abandoned chickens. The photo above is Shirley, who I found on Pet Finder. She’s not even full grown and is available for adoption from the San Francisco Animal Care and Control.
My friend Seth runs a Seattle company that salvages urban hardwoods and makes furniture ( http://www.meyerwells.com ). Their mill and shop is right next to the animal shelter and apparently they hear the roosters in there all day long. Lots of roosters in the shelter…
I have been trying to convince him to let a couple roosters come over and live free-range in his log yard, it has lots of space and eight foot fences, though now that you mention it, I bet it is not raccoon-proof.
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