Raising chickens at home real coop for Oregonians
RYAN KOST, Associated Press
Comments 
2
Published: August 31, 2009
PORTLAND, Ore. — Williams Avenue is a street with a soundtrack like most any other in the neighborhoods of Portland. There’s the swishing of bikes, the rustling of leaves and the whirring of motors.
But then there’s something else under those familiar notes: a tiny warble of clucks coming from a chicken coop set in a front yard.
Newspapers across the country have been splashing urban and suburban chicken-keeping across their front pages. It’s the latest thing, they say. But in Portland, it’s old hat. For the past few years, chicken-keeping has found its place here.
It seems odd at first; a background beat added to the wrong song. But if you listen as you walk along the streets, it’s a chorus that starts to sound familiar.
Portland Mayor Sam Adams has two hens. Spots in chicken-raising classes fill up nearly as fast as the nurseries in
north Portland can plan them. Hatcheries have trouble keeping up with demand. Residents dedicate blogs to their chickens.
And late last month, hundreds of people turned out for the sixth annual Tour de Coop, a self-guided tour of 26 chicken coops.
"It’s inspiring,” said
Naomi Coplin, one of the chicken-watchers as she looked around at the setup just off Williams Avenue.
The yard looked like a watercolor painting. Greens and reds and yellows and pinks folded in on each other. Sunflowers taller than the visitors shot up from the tilled ground. Raised beds offered up produce. Bees and butterflies shot through the air, using wildflowers as landing pads. And at the center of the garden was one of Portland’s most impressive coops.
The structure wound through the yard in the shape of a "V.” There was a roost, a run, a tower for lounging and a sign out front in the shape of an egg. "Hens for Obama,” it read.
Growing Gardens, the group that presented the tour this year, sold out of the 800 booklets it printed detailing the route. It’s a glossy guide, complete with pictures of the ways in which Portlanders have wrangled chickens into their lives and onto their property.
Some coops are sleek, cottage-looking things, the sort of home
Martha Stewart would order up. Others are more eclectic, cobbled together from scraps of tin and wood.
The tour started six years ago with just a dozen coops and about 100 people. Since then, Growing Gardens, which promotes home gardening and sustainable living, has taken it over and watched it expand.
Why hen-keeping came early to Portland is hard to say.
"It’s people wanting to get into a more sustainable way of living and more of a grow-local movement, and I think Portland and some of those other areas have been in the forefront,” said
Rob Ludlow, the owner of Backyard Chicken, a
California Web site that offers itself up as a chicken-keeping field guide.
Nationwide, many cities have changed laws to allow for small flocks, often without roosters and their early morning crowing. Disputes have surfaced in some cities and suburbs over concerns that chickens will reduce property values or that their feed could attract rodents.
In
Salem,
Oregon’s capital city,
Barbara Palermo has led the local fight for the right to raise chickens in her backyard. When city officials told her she’d have to get rid of some illegal chickens about a year ago, she nearly gave in. Then she did some poking around and discovered the vibrant chicken scene in Portland and how it was spreading.
"I had no idea that this was allowed everywhere, that there was this urban-chicken movement,” she said. "When I discovered that, then I really realized that it was just ridiculous not to at least try to change the law.”
Leave a Comment
Life Photo Galleriesview all
Prev
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
Thank you for joining our conversations on newsok. We encourage your discussions but ask that you stay within the bounds of our terms and conditions. Please help us by reporting comments that violate these guidelines. To review our rules of engagement, go to Commenting and posting policy.
Log in below or sign up (it's free).