Why chickens?

My infatuation with chicken keeping began with a causal viewing of Mad City Chickens that a friend of mine convinced me to go to. Before seeing the documentary, I wasn't too interested in chickens, and didn't think it was something I'd want to take on - too much responsibility, too much upkeep, too much poop, too many eggs, etc., etc.

After the movie I became a little bit crazed, and decided my mission for the next few months was convincing my partner that chickens were a good idea and to learn everything about them that I possibly could. I read books, attended workshops, read forums and blogs, planned coops while laying in bed trying to sleep, dreamed about chicken breeds, for several weeks it felt like every moment was chicken related. Fortunately, it was late Fall so I could not run out and buy them, but definitely I wanted to.

Having time to think this through was good - deciding to have chickens purely for the "cool" factor was lame and that's what any spontaneous purchase of chickens would have been. Honestly, I don't like the idea of being part of a sustainability fad, and while I know a lot of people are conscientious of what keeping chickens might mean, a lot aren't. What does it mean to be part of an urban sustainability movement? Who is this for, i.e. who benefits and how can we maximize that benefit? There is a context to the sustainability movement that parallels the issue of urban food access. To be frank, is this some hippy dippy, privileged, thoughtless club that I'd be joining, or can it serve as a model that can address food access issues, reduce food costs, reduce living costs in the long run (after the initial investment) with the byproduct being a more local food system that benefits a large number of people? I don't want a trickle down effect, I want food in the hands of people!

Clearly, people have been keeping chickens for hundreds (thousands?) of years and many cultures continue that practice in urban environments with great success. But it's still important to consider the commercialization of chicken keeping for the urban crowd, and how easily it can be part of the problem, rather then a solution, to our food system issues. My intent for my own chicken keeping was to have access to local/organic eggs (and possibly meat, more on this in later posts) cheaper than $5+ a dozen, decrease my impact on my community, and encourage others to adopt sustainable practices. In addition, I'd have a novel animal (note: not pet) that creates very useful compost and is interesting to keep.

This blog will chronicle my experiences with chicken keeping in Chicago, plain and simple.