The Suburban Chicken

The Guide to Keeping Healthy, Thriving Chickens in Your Backyard

Kristina Mercedes Urquhart

• Publisher: CompanionHouse Books
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781620082225
• Topic: Technologie et ingénierie
• Subtopic: Élevage d'animaux

With more and more city dwellers and suburbanites embracing the notion of getting back to basics and living simpler, more rustic lives, it’s no surprise that the popularity of backyard chicken keeping has skyrocketed in recent years. Whether for enjoyment as pets or for the convenience of farm-fresh eggs right outside your door, chicken keeping can be an easy and fun step on the road to more sustainable, ecologically friendly living.Written by Kristina Mercedes Urquhart, The Suburban Chicken shares the author’s knowledge on general chicken husbandry, profiles of 20 suitable breeds for suburban living, how to provide your birds with optimal accommodations, and the healthcare needs of chickens, among other important topics about which prospective chicken owners should be familiar.
INSIDE SUBURBAN CHICKEN:•The benefits and enjoyment of keeping chickens as pets.•Considerations for would-be chicken keepers, including local ordinances, space requirements, initial and ongoing expenses, and preparing the home and family.•Favorite standard-size, bantam, and egg-laying breeds for metropolitan and family living.•Hatching eggs and raising chicks.•Coop styles and descriptions of all equipment that a budding chicken keeper needs, as well as a chapter dedicated to keeping chickens safe from predators. •Preventive care and optimal diets for healthy, hardy birds. •Raising chickens for eggs: the science behind egg production, how to properly handle and store fresh eggs, and the differences between store-bought and homegrown eggs, as well as some exciting recipes for your bounty.

Special thanks to my original flock of girls, Loretta, Prudence, Penny, Eleanor, Martha, Madonna, Rita, Sadie, and Yoko, for introducing me to the silly, wonderful world of keeping chickens.

The Suburban Chicken

Project Team

Editor: Dolores York

Design: Mary Ann Kahn

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Copyright © 2015 by i-5 Publishing, LLC^TM

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of I-5 Press^TM, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Urquhart, Kristina Mercedes, author.

The suburban chicken : the guide to keeping healthy, thriving chickens

in your backyard / Kristina Mercedes Urquhart

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-62008-197-6

1. Chickens. 2. Suburban animals. I. Title.

SF487.U77 2015

636.5--dc23

2015023997

eBook ISBN: 978-1-62008-222-5

This book has been published with the intent to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter within. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the author and publisher expressly disclaim any responsibility for any errors, omissions, or adverse effects arising from the use or application of the information contained herein. The techniques and suggestions are used at the reader’s discretion and are not to be considered a substitute for veterinary care. If you suspect a medical problem, consult your veterinarian.

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Introduction

I grew up with chickens, but not in the way you’re thinking. Born and raised on the island town of Key West, Florida, I rubbed elbows with all manner of feral fowl in the days of my youth. The small, scrappy birds that freely roam the island are descended from Spanish fighting cocks that were smuggled into the United States by way of Cuba. They bred with domestic laying chickens that had been freed during the postwar supermarket boom, when households starting buying their eggs instead of raising them. These wild Key West chickens still own the streets today, indiscriminately roosting in palms and brooding their babies under brush year-round, prey only to the six-toed Hemingway cats that also call the island home.

I grew up with these birds quite literally in my backyard, entirely unintentionally. They were always underfoot, roosting overhead, or, at their best, blocking traffic across town as the proverbial chicken crossing the road. My grandmother, on the other hand, having grown up in Key West as well, intentionally raised these very birds. Learning from her mother, she helped care for the flocks of chickens and pigeons that provided the family with meat and eggs. As a girl, my grandmother was entrusted with the chores of plucking the processed pigeons and egg collecting. Raising your own food was sustainable. It was healthy eating close to home. It was a way of life. And after all these years, it’s a way of life that I’m aiming for as well.

Fast-forward many years and I’m 25, sitting on the couch watching television. I’m living in Brooklyn, New York, with my husband, paying all too much in rent for our tiny ground-floor apartment. I’m watching a home improvement show geared toward sustainability, taking mental notes of what I want to include in our dream house, when the homeowner leads the show’s host out to the backyard. Here she has a small triangular structure on the grass with a few chickens pecking around inside. She describes her birds (naming each one, of course) and how they fertilize her soil as she moves her “tractor” around the yard.

“Ian!” I yell, though it’s completely unnecessary in our 600 sq. ft. (56 sq. m) apartment, “Come look! We’re going to do this when we move. We’re going to get chickens!”

This idea—keeping my own chickens for eggs—excited me more than any recessed light fixture or built-in. I wasn’t exactly sure what it meant, or what the larger implication was to be, but I knew I was hooked before we had even started.

Key West chickens are some of the most colorful feral chickens in America.

When my husband and I finally mustered the gumption to quit our salaried city jobs and move out of New York, we bought our first house in his hometown in North Carolina. Erecting a coop and getting chickens was one of the first things we did in our modest backyard. We raised that first fl...