For the Birds!

I have brought up the subject in my household, of "urban chicken farming" in the past. I think it would be pretty cool to have a bunch of chickens. The fresh eggs, insect control, free fertilizer and hours of tortuous chores, I mean entertainment, for the boys. Who wouldn't want some chickens? My grandparents raised chickens in their back yard for years and they lived in the city. I even have the perfect place for them in the backyard that's already cordoned off so the dogs can't get them.

It seems I'm not alone in this idea. In the Dallas Morning News this morning, Folks in Dallas, elsewhere hatching plans for backyard chicken farms. I probably have a romanticized view of what it means to be an urban chicken farmer. My image is something like this:

There is NO WAY Sue is going to let me have chickens. Something about how I can't take care of the stuff we already have. She'll point to the garage, or the back yard, or how the kids don't like to clean their rooms, or anything other objection she can raise, related or not. So for now urban chicken farming is just a suprious idea floating around in my head. It probably will never amount to much more than that.