Chicken in coop @ Both Feet on Main Street. Photo by Dan Toulgoet (Vancouver Courier)
Of course we think so, and so does the Vancouver Courier. Writer Sandra Thomas freely admits that she was initially skeptical about the idea, but the tone in her recent cover story in the community newspaper suggests that she may have changed her tune. Here’s the article:
“I hear that sometimes an egg can get stuck. What do you do then?”
You could have heard a pin drop when a woman attending a June screening of the documentary Mad City Chickens at Langara College asks that question following the film. But unfazed animal scientist Heather Havens, who is often referred to as the “Chicken Lady,” answers without blinking an eye.
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Image: Granville Magazine
Chicks in the city, Are backyard chickens sustainable, or just stylish?
A glib headline (and tone at times), but a pretty fair article. The last few paragraphs are perhaps the most poignant, with the final sentence being the kicker.
Whatever the benefits hens provide in terms of providing eggs, shortening the food chain, taking are of kitchen scraps or fertilizing the yard, she admits that they’re a luxury. We have the opportunity to choose whether or not to gather our own eggs or buy them from any one of the several vendors our society affords.
[Heather] Jarvey hints, however, that it might not always be so, and that having a few small-scale producers in the community keeps alive agricultural practices that might one day be important for the survival of neighbourhoods and communities.
“Yes, it is a luxury – right now,” she says. “But I’d rather be doing it while it’s a luxury than try to figure it out when it’s a necessity.”
Read the rest of the article on the Granville Magazine site.
Just shy of 100 people have signed our petition in support of an amended animal control bylaw in the City of Vancouver that would allow residents to keep chickens on residential lots. Keeping spreading the word and here’s some choice comments from some of the signers on why they want to see backyard chickens legalized.
I already try and keep my carbon footprint as small as I can by doing most of my shopping within my neighbourhood and purchasing locally grown food whenever possible. I have started a garden and I do a lot of preserving.
Keeping chickens will serve a number of purposes in our household. They will be a good source of protein by providing free run organic eggs for my family, they will provide good manure to fertilise my garden, they will consume table scraps – particularly those that are not compostable (like cooked food and baked goods), and they will help keep my yard and garden weed and pest free.
Properly kept chickens should not smell, or attract vermin.
More Comments after the jump. Read More »
