| Mar ’12 |
| 7 |
| 7:30 pm |
Having kept chickens for the better part of two decades, I can attest to the joy they bring to even a small suburban yard. This month’s topic, appropriate as we begin our journey into spring, will be Urban Poultry: Rules/Regulations, Coop Design, Care and Considerations. Jim McCormack will lecture on the necessities, challenges and benefits of housing chickens in an urban environment. Dean tells us we might even have our very own guest lap chicken!
Recent changes in legal regulations surrounding chicken keeping within city and county limits as well as the relative ease that goes with raising chickens has resulted in larger numbers of novice chicken farmers. And there’s little wonder as to why. Eggs, of course, are an excellent reason to keep chickens, and you’ll be hard pressed to find any grocer that sells eggs of this quality (both in taste and in nutritional content). Other benefits of owning urban poultry are 1) chicken manure makes a fantastic fertilizer, 2) the foraging nature of chickens keeps soils fresh and aerated, and 3), chickens all but ensure a yard free of pest insects.
Even if you’re unlikely to entertain owning chickens yourself, understanding the ideas of raising chickens enriches our local communities and paves the way for the (long overdue) informed repeal of existing legal barriers to urban poultry farming. So join us for a great evening as we talk about these wonderful animals and the many benefits they bring to the urban landscape.
Date: Wednesday, March 7th
Time: 7:30pm
Where: Sugar House Park Garden Center, 1602 East 2100 South
Another great lecture! Thanks to Dean and Jim for answering the many questions we had. The keeping of chickens is a fairly expansive topic, and trying to cover everything from county/city ordinances to health, food and species selection is simply impossible in just a few hours. We hope the lecture and Q&A provided some answers and a starting point to conduct additional research. While we weren’t able to get to coop design, there’s a wealth of information to be found on the interwebs. Also, please plan on attending the Wasatch Community Gardens’ Tour de Coops towards the end of June to see, first-hand, about coop design and urban chicken farming. Below you will find a link to a PDF file of the meeting handout given on March 7th as well as links to the websites found in that handout.
