edible Marin and Wine Country Summer 2010 : Page 49
“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard.” —Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz “There are chickens in the trees, there are chickens in the snow, there are chickens in the air, there are chickens everywhere. Chick, chick, chick, chicken!” —Luis Carpenter-Urroz (age 5) alking into the meticulously landscaped suburban backyard I hear a soft chattering sound. I’m visiting Mary Tilbury, a former Coach handbag designer, artist and soccer mom whose children are leaving the nest. I’m there to meet her new roommates—Sophia, Prudence, Check- ers and Tikka Masala. Underneath a cloud of apple blossoms sits a chicken coop made of silvery grey recycled redwood. An artfully constructed wire enclosure surrounds the coop area and an adjoining vegetable garden. Mary’s artistic eye clearly played a hand in the design—from the unusual sliding garden gate to the inclusion of her own sculptures. W Inside the enclosure, the chickens gather near Mary’s feet— she’s obviously the top of the pecking order. Minus the gingham skirt and starched apron, Mary is standing with her “girls” the same way our great grandmothers did. Mary grew up in Los Angeles and her husband grew up in New York—neither had ever been around chickens before, at least not live ones... Mary can’t pinpoint the exact moment she contracted back- yard chicken fever—seeing her neighbor’s chickens, paying $7 a dozen for farm fresh eggs, or maybe tallying up the money spent on fertilizing her garden. The ranks of the backyard chicken farmers had just gained another happy member. Before the 1950s, raising chickens in urban areas was com- monplace. But the arrival of supermarket eggs that coincided with the advent of the ultra-sanitized suburban lifestyle made ownership of backyard chickens seem backwards. The patio culture required us to align ourselves with “modernity” and urged us to deny our relationship with the animals that pro- vided our food. We shooed our loyal chicken companions to the side and wrote ordinances limiting any hint of farm life in our “new and improved” lives. Current ordinances in Marin, Napa and Sonoma counties regarding the keeping of chickens in residential areas vary. Sausalito’s 1946 ordinance allows chickens with a permit from the city health officer. Santa Rosa has a “don’t cluck, don’t tell” policy—chickens aren’t permitted in residentially zoned areas, but there seems to be a lot of “not telling” going on because rumor has it that Santa Rosa has one of the largest backyard chicken populations in the North Bay. California Coops, which offers a variety of eye-catching coops made from recycled tin and redwood for the backyard chicken owner, says that Santa Rosa is one of their biggest markets. Pam Hartwell-Herrero is a Fairfax backyard chicken farmer. As the Executive Director of Sustainable Fairfax and newly elected Town Council member, Pam explains that Fairfax welcomes chickens—with wise restrictions. You must keep them twenty- five feet away from neighbors’ windows or doors. They aren’t allowed to enter creeks or standing water or go onto any other property. Roosters are subject to a noise ordinance and, frankly, they aren’t necessary for hens to be good layers. Pam suggests that sharing your eggs with neighbors and avoiding rooster ownership goes a long way to soothe ruffled feathers. Pam and her daughter take their Ameraucana chickens to Sustainable Fairfax events. Pam recalls a young man remark- ing, “She’s so soft...I’ve never touched a chicken before... thank you!” We discussed the fact that having a personal experience of the animals providing our food makes it difficult to eat an egg or chicken without considering its quality of life up until that point. Pam warned that “chicken love” is contagious and noted that at her daughter’s school twelve out of fifty families have recently become backyard chicken farmers. On my way home from Pam’s, I stopped to talk with Oscar Gamez, manager of Toby’s Feedbarn (www.tobysfeedbarn. com) in Point Reyes Station. Oscar told me that there’s been a huge increase in demand for chicks over the past three years. In May of 2009, Toby’s hosted a backyard chicken workshop for almost 150 attendees with “chicksperts” discussing breeds, coop design and how to care for your flock, including the man that Oscar credits with being the best chicken expert he knows—JP Pellham of Western Farm Center in Santa Rosa (www.westernfarmcenter.com). JP is also known as the Chicken Dude and the Chick Magnet. Of course, the next day I headed out to meet the Chicken Dude. For the past eleven years JP has been the Western Farm Center’s chicken expert. He spends his days answering ques- tions and helping families select chickens. He also reports that there has been a huge surge recently in first time chicken owners. “We sold twice as many chicks in 2009 as we did in 2008 and may double our numbers again in 2010. Some Thurs- days when my new hatchlings come in I’ll sell 600 in less than five hours. During our Chick Days in March people were lined up outside the door before we got to work in the morning.” JP explained that commercial poultry producers typically use Leghorns for eggs and Cornish-Rock hybrids for meat. For backyard chicken farmers, however, there are dozens of variet- ies to choose from—based on looks, temperament, egg color, EDIBLE MARIN & WINE COUNTRY SUMMER 2010 | 49
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