Chicks dig it: 36 in Fort Collins raising chickens

FORT COLLINS - The noise over last year's controversial urban poultry farming ordinance has died down with barely a squawk.

Since the chicken ordinance went into effect in September 2008, 36 households have acquired chicken licenses.

To compare, in the same time period, animal control in Fort Collins responded to 14,314 calls through last Wednesday. Of those, six calls concerned chickens, according to Bill Porter, director of animal control with the Larimer Humane Society.

"Not much has happened," Porter said. "There were four calls of complaints from roosters crowing. ... The other two regarded smell and location of the coop, and both cases were unfounded."

During the initial consideration of the ordinance, dozens of residents shared their opinions, both for and against, on the issue with City Council members, who eventually allowed backyard chickens.

The tight nature of the Fort Collins ordinance, which limits residents to six hen chickens, regulates the location of coops, prohibits slaughter and mandates training, partly explains the ordinance's success. The four roosters in town that peeved off neighbors were "accidents," Porter said, who said owners thought they were buying hens as chicks only to discover they were roosters.

"If anything, it has generated some extra revenue," Porter said.

"Another thing is that Fort Collins has received all kinds of attention from across the nation about our groundbreaking chicken ordinance. I've gotten calls from reporters from everywhere - the New York Times called me," Porter said.

The movement toward keeping backyard chickens has been documented across the nation. Aside from Fort Collins, more than 30 cities passed chicken ordinances in 2008 and 2009, including Cleveland; Durham, N.C.; and Moab, Utah. Urban chicken farmers are uniting online at sites such as UrbanChickens.org, BackyardChickens.com and TheCityChicken.com. A local blog devoted to the subject, Fortcollins-urbanhens.blogspot.com, even started up.

For local residents interested in, but clueless about, keeping backyard chickens, the Rocky Mountain Sustainable Living Association periodically holds backyard chickens workshops.

Greg Michaud, who teaches the workshops, has kept up to 200 chickens in several makeshift coops behind his LaPorte home for the past seven years.

Michaud attributes the chicken craze to the bourgeoning local, sustainable food movement. He thinks people also are attracted to the quality and taste of eggs from free foraging backyard birds, which, unlike industrially produced eggs, are not uniform in size, color or taste.

Michaud and his family make use of plenty of the eggs themselves.

"We go through about a half a dozen or 10 a day," he said from his kitchen, egg in hand. "It's cheap food for us. The other thing is that these eggs taste way better than anything you can get in the grocery store. Period."

Michaud, who retails juvenile hens, eggs, feed and other miscellaneous chicken supplies from his business, Michaud's Old Feed Store, said a first-time chicken owner should expect to invest $350 the first year to cover all the necessary expenses for six hens. In subsequent years, the chickens can be maintained and fed for closer to $200, he said. The return, in a year, is 1,400 to 1,500 eggs and the meat of the "retired" hens.

In Fort Collins city limits, where slaughter is prohibited, resident chicken owners have several options for "retiring" no-longer-productive hens. They can drive to the edge of town and do the deed, Porter said, or donate them to the raptor rehabilitation center in Fort Collins for training purposes. The Larimer Human Society also accepts unwanted birds.

For information about raising backyard chickens, the Rocky Mountain Sustainable Living Association offers occasional seminars. Visit www.sustainablelivingassociation.org, or call 970-224-3247.

This story written by Michael P. Koshmrl, Fort Collins Coloradoan.