Poulet chalets

Whether it's a desire to eat locally or a concern about where and how food is raised, a growing number of people are adding a little cluck to their backyard. While urban chicken farming, like food gardening and beekeeping, is nothing new, its popularity has grown in recent years.

"Sales of baby chicks are up about 50 percent from a year ago," says John Bellandi, owner of Alamo Hay & Grain. Online searches are going gangbusters. According to Yahoo, searches for "chicken coops" are up 100 percent, while searches for "chicken coop plans" are up 225 percent (these numbers represent 30 days ending on April 19).

But for four Bay Area urban farmers, no mere cage will do. They're housing their hens in style - gracing their coops with decorative touches such as a chandelier, custom roosts made from cherry branches, split-level interiors and glass windows to maximize natural light. And there's more to chickens than fresh eggs, they say. Chickens make great pets, all the while eating pests and fertilizing the yard.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/25/HOK91CMT9H.DTL#ixzz0m9wV6aPQ

It was great fun collecting eggs at Grandpa's and feeding the critters.

The demo of them running around after their head was chopped off was good, too.

The electric fence demo was good, too. The dog (Jack) wasn't real happy though.

Grandpa had a unigue way of teaching. Oh, yea...he taught us how to roll cigarettes, too. He lived to be 90.

You’re right. Laying hens can be expensive. You can’t make any real money at it unless you have 200 or more hens...and already own the land and buildings outright, LOL!

Believe me, I’ve done the math...

However, I’m not giving up ‘my girls.’ I have a flock of 40 right now. They are such a blast to raise and so easy to care for and those eggs are so wonderfully tasty I can’t even begin to describe them.

I cut costs by letting them free range in the spring/summer/fall (they go back into the coop at night for protection) and feed them household scraps and these huge bags of day-old bread I can buy for a few bucks at a local bakery. They get laying mash in early spring to get them geared up again, then I switch to cracked corn. And lots and lots of clean, fresh water from the well.

I sell all I/we/they can produce (take out a dozen each week for my family) to one local guy. What he does with them from there on out, I don’t ask and he won’t tell, LOL!

I also keep a ‘Chicken Bucket’ at work and any lunch scraps from co-workers go in there. My City Folk co-workers think it’s so COOL that they’re not ‘wasting’ food; it’s going to The Girls. ;)

They are rewarded with baked goods made with farm fresh eggs. :)

I live in a semi-rural area of Maine.

Within a couple miles I can find a dozen places selling fresh eggs at the end of the driveway. Also fresh milk (raw), cheese and greens.

With a little work, I can find fresh broilers,a half a pig, or a quarter of a cow.

With this economy, this is a good place to be.

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