Raising chickens offers a good life for our feathered friends, a sense of peace, a connection to nature and our food source, eggs with high nutritional value, a composting and fertilization system, free entertainment and another reason to rise and shine.
I appreciate a good, hearty, hot, nutritious and deep yellow omelet. I like humane treatment of animals. When trying to marry these two passions, however, I find myself in an internal struggle. Finding a resource of egg-laying chickens where I am certain that the treatment is humane, cage free, free range and organic has proven a challenge. In my blog post, Quest for a Kind Egg, I tried to get the straight dope. I have also tried with desperation to check farm websites or have a decent conversation with the Egg Guy at the Lake Merritt Farmer’s Market, all with not luck. Finally, I was ready to up my quest.
How about raising chickens? What an original and radical idea. I launched a few investigative e-mails, wondering if anyone I knew could possibly be an urban chicken farmer. It turns out that all the cool kids are doing it. Responses flooded in from Oakland, San Francisco, Berkeley, Monterey, Point Reyes, and beyond, and I was off for some backyard coop adventures to catch up on the trend.
I paid a visit to Mike and Tasha and their three hens at their condo in Rockridge. I found their flock happily hanging in their home-made coop and condo backyard, doing some evening snacking. Tony was raised with chickens in Zimbabwe and went the chicken route because he finds them peaceful and entertaining to observe. He appreciates their free-range roaming of the yard and their innate ability to pull on grasses until they get the seeds. He loves that each chicken lays one egg a day, offering the family plenty of heavy, delicious eggs for eating and baking. He especially loves the way they announce their egg laying with a loud squawking performance and shout out.
Tasha appreciates the relationship she and her three year old daughter have with these gals. They recognize her, respond to her and add a nurturing dimension to her life. They also take care of the family compost as they peck away.