My chickens on Fox News

[Southern28Chick]

Quote:
Trisha,

Chickens are NOT illegal now.

Take care,

Tami

Oh, I'm dyslexic by the way. I thought she said "At this point, keeping chickens in Chicago is still illegal". My bad. I'll delete my post.

 

[chickUP]

You did a great job representing resposible chicken owners! My chickens are considered illegal because my township classifies them as livestock. Where I live you need to have 10 acres to keep livestock, I have only 2 acres. By the way I live in the woods with no full-time neighbors, only a "camp" on either side. The zoning guy at the township said if nobody complained that he didn't care if I had chickens. I phoned the owners of the camps and they thought it was silly that I was even asking. They too love the fresh eggs delivered to thier doors in the summer!
Good luck, I hope Chicago doesn't do anything silly.

Jess

 

[SeaChick]

Great video, Linda..... after having been through this I'd say that the tone of that report sounds pretty positive for your outcome. The lede about getting fresh breakfast from your pet, and the urban-gardening movement is a much better one than these news spots usually choose. I agree that you and your pretty girls in their Eglu are good representatives for all of us urban chicken owners. My fingers are crossed for you!!! Please keep us updated.

By the way, how are your girls doing in the Eglu in the cold? People have asked me if I thought Eglus would work in Maine and I dont know the answer! Do they have access to your yard ever or stay in the run all the time? Your snow sure looked awfully pristine: our white back yard gets muddied and pooped-on very quickly when we let the girls out!

Best wishes
Stacey

 

[KrisRose]

Good job Linda!! I'm with Buff, I would have been pretty much incoherent in front of a t.v. camera.

I was dumbfounded over Cardenas and his comment that chickens might cause cancer. Perhaps I miss understood him. The whole point of having your own chickens is knowing what they do or don't eat, therefore knowing what is or isn't in your eggs.

 

[LindaN]

SeaChick, we wouldn't have gotten this far on the issue without all the wonderful materials you developed and passed on!

As far as the suitability of an Eglu in northern winters, I'd say it's mainly dependent on how much snow falls. If your area gets LOTS of snow, then the coop and run could easily be buried under it.

Snow is a great insulator, so it's not all bad. However, if you can't get the run door open in order to add more food and water, or you can't get to the door mechanisms, then you're in trouble.

I have the run covered in plastic so it stays dry, draft free, and snug. It definitely keeps the run warmer, too. The plastic is also over the Eglu itself in order to keep the door mechanisms ice free. If they got stuck, we'd be in trouble. I close and lock the door of the coop every night, both for safety reasons and to contain the heat inside the coop.

The low-profile of the Eglu coop really works in my favor for the winter. It traps their body heat and contains it quite well. I also have a dog kennel type heat pad inside on the floor. The heat pad is covered with newspaper to keep it clean (although it is pet-rated, so I'm sure if gets poop on it, that's OK), and then the roosting bars are on top of it.

I've been doing a sort of modified deep litter system inside the run and coop using leaves raked up this fall. I've added lots of fluffy, dry leaves inside the coop. I fluff them up and add new leaves as needed. I cleaned out the coop once by pushing the leaves and poop into the run, then raking it over and adding fresh leaves to the run. Seems to work very well and not smell at all.

The girls are doing great in the Eglu. So far, the temps have gotten down into the teens F a couple times and they have been just fine.

 

[KingsCalls]

Now since you have "famous" chickens, I bet your price for eggs just sky-rocketed!!!!!! LOL
Glad to hear that you all are working together to try and work this out.

 

[SpottedCrow]

That was an excellent piece!
Congrats, Linda!

 

[speckledhen]

Good for you, Linda! I wonder why people always think chickens have to stink? Ever smell someone's yard who owns a bunch of dogs? EWWWWWW! That beats chicken poop any day! And ask all the rats who are frequenting vacant houses where the chicken poop is that drew them in! Rats exist, birds or no birds.