NOW TRENDING: CHOOKS IN THE ‘HOOD
So. You’ve whacked on a straw hat, planted a veggie garden, bought some chooks and now call yourself an urban farmer. Congratulations! Just don’t expect your neighbours to get too egg-cited for you.
Urban farming is the new catchcry of the sustainability movement and the humble backyard chook its poster child.
Chooks have earned their green cred: they recycle food scraps; eat backyard insect pests like spiders and cockroaches; produce organic food with zero food miles and provide natural fertiliser for the garden. What’s not to like?
Well, while suburbia may want to call itself sustainable, not all urban dwellers are ready for the full Monty.
We learned that lesson the hard way when a chick in the flock we were minding for friends turned out to be a fluffy little rooster that sent the neighbours into a frenzy with its early-morning crowing.
They threatened to call the council; offered to dump the bird by the side of the road and said spots were appearing on their faces from the stress. Spots!
I tried to re-home “Fluffy”. After appeals to friends, sticking up public notices and ringing animal rescue groups failed, early one Sunday morning I caught our testosterone-fuelled feathered friend, and, much to the relief of the spotty neighbour (and the hens Fluffy had been amorously approaching), headed to a local poultry club auction.
Raising chooks… fun for the whole family.
With Fluffy nestled in my arms, to the Akubra-wearing poultry-auction crowd I must have looked like a kindergarten kid bringing in their pet bird for show-and-tell.
Fluffy was placed into a poultry display cage with a “free to a good home” sign attached, given a fresh water supply and I left him there looking forlorn and abandoned while I went home to tell my neighbour the “good” news.
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