How to raise chickens

How appropriate that the first place in Morinville to get backyard chickens is next door to a KFC.

Basketball-sized birds, Bin Cluckin', Apple, Banshe, Dollar, Dodge, and Super Chicken currently spend their days strutting and clucking about their wood-and-wire coop in Jill and Chris Ladouceur's backyard. Bin Cluckin' is an all-black Olive Egger, and the rest are Wyandottes, which have black and white feathers. They play in the dust bath, chase after bugs, and hop onto and off of the perches stuck in the walls. If they could look over the fence across the alley, they'd see the Col. Sanders' restaurant that serves chicken.

Jill chuckles as she recalls what happened when she told the restaurant's owner of her plans to host backyard chickens.

"She (the owner) thought we wanted to bring her chickens, and we said, no we want to have chickens."

Jill is one of several St. Albert and Morinville residents test-driving backyard chickens this summer as part of the growing urban agriculture movement. The rules in each community are different, but the motivations for backyard hen ownership tend to be the same: fresh, local food and independence.

"We're interested in homesteading," Jill says, and this is the first step towards it. She and Chris also really wanted fresh eggs for their five kids.

St. Albert's Christal Myner has similar reasons for keeping her flock of four in her Grandin backyard in St. Albert.

"We really wanted good quality eggs (where) we knew what the chickens were fed," she says. Combined with her garden, she can now get entire meals from her yard.

It's also fun to watch them ramble about the yard, she adds.

"It's kind of like a fish tank."

Birds of many feathers

Christal and her husband Pierre say they've had their birds for about five years, having previously housed them at a friend's acreage and before then in Edmonton as part of that city's chicken program.

The Myners have bantam-sized birds called Silkies. Covered head-to-foot in long, silky feathers, they look like a mob of ambulatory mops. Beeker, the caramel one, is the oldest and plays den mother to the rest, Christal says. Opal is the defender, and will flare her black feathers and clawed feet at threats to her flock. Daisy is white and friendly, and Midge is brown.

Silkies, Wyandottes and Olive Eggers are just a few of the 400-some chicken breeds you can get in Canada, says Rico Sebastianelli, a champion chicken breeder and show-chicken judge who lives near Bon Accord. While you can buy chickens online or at auction sales, he recommends going to poultry shows where you can talk to the breeder directly.

"You want to go to shows where people look after their birds," he says.

For backyard chickens, Sebastianelli says to avoid Leghorns (big, white, red-combed), as they're flighty and noisy; game-bird hybrids, as they're aggressive, and the Orientals, as they rip up your yard with their long legs. Orpingtons (big, fluffy) are a good pick if you want a bird that lays lots of eggs and is good around kids. If you want a quiet one that's small enough to handle like a pet, try a Cochin.

Chicken cash

Pierre says most chickens will cost $8 to $20 and last about eight years. A bag of chicken feed costs about $15 and lasts for about four months. He and Christal also feed their birds vegetable scraps and let them eat weeds and bugs from their garden. This varied diet results in a more orange, better tasting yolk.

The biggest cost to keeping chickens is the coop. Buy one pre-made, and you're looking at $1,500, says Chris.

"You'd think a couple of 2x4s wouldn't add up to much, but we used reclaimed (wood) and still ended up spending $700," he says.

Chickens need food, water and sunlight every day, say the Myners and Ladouceurs. Expect to clean the coop once a week and to let the birds in and out of the roost each day. You'll also need someone to mind the birds if you go on vacation.

"It's less work than people think it is," Christal says.

"Once you set up (the coop), it's pretty low maintenance."

The birds owned by the Ladouceurs and the Myners aren't that noisy, making just a few soft clucks and warbles as strangers walk up to them – considerably more when Jill's son Saulus chases them around the pen. The birds also tend to cluck more when they're about to lay an egg.

"I can tell you, the magpies are louder, hands down," Christal says.

Christal says she gets about one or two eggs a day from her four birds, some of which she gives away. Jill expects to eventually get about six a day from her birds. Given that she and Chris alone eat about five eggs a day, they estimate they'll recoup the cost of their chickens in about three years.

Chicken owners should collect eggs daily so the birds don't eat the broken ones, Sebastianelli says. You don't have to wash your chickens unless you plan to take them to a show, as they'll preen themselves regularly.

The Myners say they do give their birds the occasional bath. Pierre says one of the birds actually falls asleep when they put her in a bucket of warm water and will sprawl luxuriously under the hairdryer.

"How many people can say they've blow-dried a chicken?" says Christal, with a smile.

Fowl fun

Sebastianelli says chickens won't really play with you or do tricks, but you can cuddle them or feed them by hand. Chris says they're like fish in a tank, "but you get to eat what comes out of their butt."

Like fish, there is something relaxing about watching the Myners' birds as they amble about the grass, mulch and shrubs, picking at bugs.

Pierre says the neighbour's kids will come over to check out their birds, and recalls how one boy back in Edmonton would always bring the birds worms. There was also a woman who would sit in her backyard watching their birds all the time.

"She called it 'my chicken therapy,'" he says.

Jill says her kids love the chickens, and will often hold them and feed them weeds. They're also learning about responsibility by helping to collect the eggs.

Jill says she's keeping the birds in their coop for now so her kids don't step in poop, but hopes to take the chickens out for walks on a leash in the back alley soon – mere metres from the KFC.

Although they don't go to KFC that often, Jill says she has no problem keeping chicken on the menu now that she's raising some of her own.

"We'd go out and feed them and go inside and have chicken breasts for dinner," she says.

But not these chickens, Chris adds; it's cheaper to get ones from the store.