How Do Your Eggs Stack Up?
Whether you live in the city or country, here’s how to find healthy, delicious, farm-fresh eggs — and even raise a few happy chickens of your own.
April/May 2007
By Laura Sayre
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Taking care of chickens is an excellent way to encourage your family to get outside and connect to the natural world.
GETTY IMAGES/TANYA CONSTANTINE
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Buying eggs has become complicated. It’s no longer just a matter of choosing between white and brown, large and extra large or even organic and conventional. Now there are “omega-3,” “vitamin-enriched” and “cage-free.” The prices on these “designer eggs,” to use the industry term, can top $4 a dozen. And then there’s “free-range” and “certified humane,” labels that imply the producers treat their hens better than others do.
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It’s true that some eggs are healthier, tastier and more environmentally friendly than others, but despite all the label claims, it’s often difficult to know exactly what you’re getting with supermarket eggs. Many of those claims are unregulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), leaving it up to the consumer to discover their meaning (see How to Decode Egg Cartons). What’s a shopper to do? One strategy is to learn about the different companies (how big are they? where are they based? who are the stockholders?) to help you decide which you prefer to support. Another is to find a local source for fresh eggs, or even to get a few chickens of your own and declare your independence from the supermarket egg case.
In rural areas, suburbs and even cities nationwide, more and more people are discovering that keeping a few hens takes no more effort than keeping a dog, and that they can have eggs as good as or better than the priciest eggs in the grocery store — and have fun doing it.
Raising Urban Birds
Mad City Chickens is a case in point. In April 2002, Alicia Rheal and Bryan Whiting had been keeping half a dozen hens in a small coop behind their house in Madison, Wis., for almost a year. One day, an animal control worker showed up.
“Apparently, someone was concerned we were going to eat them,” Rheal says. The animal control worker admitted he wasn’t sure of the city’s rules on chickens and referred them to a zoning officer. The zoning officer said that while city ordinances permitted any number of chickens to be kept inside a house, outdoor poultry were prohibited. “He was really nice about it, though,” Rheal says. “He suggested we try to get that changed.”
So the Rheals gave away their flock and decided to see what they could do. They got in touch with a city council member and began talking to neighbors. They wrote an article for the local newspaper, asking for support. Before long they had uncovered a thriving “urban chicken underground,” dozens of people across the city who were quietly keeping chickens and who were only too happy to come out of their shells.
“There was one fellow three blocks away who’d had chickens for 20 years,” Rheal says. “We ended up meeting all these terrific people.”
In the spring of 2004, Madison changed its poultry ordinance. Today, Mad City Chickens hosts an annual summer Coop Tour and a fall “Pro-Poultry People Potluck,” each attracting up to 80 people. Rheal and others offer a two-hour City Chickens 101 class to teach would-be poultry owners the basics of coop design and other requirements. A buzzing online discussion group helps members organize group purchases of chicks and share ideas, such as how to keep waterers from freezing in the winter.
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