When I commence nurture chickens , the supportive chicken community that we have today was just commence to cultivate up online . The Internet was crawling with novices just like me whose aspirations in sustainability led them to a seemingly sudden Gallus gallus obsession . We had more questions than answers .

Wannabe chicken keepers search to legit nation Fannie Farmer for advice , but the advice did n’t always have the right urban tantrum . Culling , for illustration , is n’t something we do in the city . Not only is it ( often ) illegal , but also , we do n’t usually defeat beast we name and snuggle . Rural farmers can sure give us flack for the impracticality of feed farm animal one wo n’t eat . Our precedence are sometimes just different , but they ’re not wrong .

folk used to keep chickens on city pile before grocery memory and factory food became main generator of provision , so for awhile , chicken keeping went by the roadside . It ’s been just enough clip — about two or three generations — that chicken keeping for the sake of raising one ’s own food became an gonzo and rebellious act of sustainability .

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I acquire up in the city . Today , my brother and I both keep chickens : his rural and mine urban . ( Our parents are shocked . ) What tickles me about this way-out chicken hobby my brother and I partake is that our personal interests and political relation take issue greatly , but this is the one thing we can talk shop about , and we entirely get each other . That ’s passably particular to me .

We live in a time and place where sustainability gets to be a hobby , and people think we ’re kind of goofy for want to do a lilliputian act for ourselves . It was once so shopworn to have chicken . I wonder if there was a time when no one ever questioned it . Why is n’t it normal to elevate beast for food ?

I ’ll always remember the mo I take in I wanted chickens . I was in my kitchen hear to think of what else I could do to control what my grow family was feed . In a split second , a proverbial flash , this metropolis girl who never liked an fauna with wing take chicken in her living . I researched what entropy was available online at the time , I graze forums and studied coops , I befriended young farmers , and usher out people who called me disturbed , all for two years before I could convince my hubby chickens were a grand estimate .

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What I ’m trying to say is that I ’m thankful for the community we ’ve all built together . Just a few years ago , I did n’t know anyone else who raise chickens . Today , I have volaille booster all over the country . As a author , I get to write about my square admirer , and I get to question people who love their chicken just as much as I do .

It ’s well-situated to accuse me of being bathetic about my chickens . My outstanding - grandmothers , sustainable women in their own rights , are the namesakes of my first wad . But I ’m just as sentimental about the citizenry who total to read this web log . Thank you !

So , lector , tell me what matter you ’d like me to address in the Chicken Quarters . Please comment below and tell me what you ’d care to read in my future posts .

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