Austinites' backyard chicken flocks grow

[Chris_]

Austinites' backyard chicken flocks grow

Local chick and layer sales up 100 percent from last year.
By Molly Bloom

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF


Monday, July 07, 2008

Frank Curry bought his first chickens to get manure for his compost pile.

Eight years later, Curry and his wife and daughter have a flock of 10in their South Austin backyard, making them members of a growing group of urban chicken enthusiasts.

"In no small part, I think, it is taking control of your food supply," Curry said of the fowl renaissance. "And the eggs are heaven."

H-E-Bs and Super Wal-Marts have made it easier to pick up a dozen eggs at the store than grab them from the backyard coop, but in recent years, Austinites and city dwellers across the country have rediscovered the joys of backyard chicken husbandry.

They don't even have to try to "Keep Austin Weird" anymore.

MORE

[Lord Undies]

My grandmother had chickens right in the big middle of Houston.  The eggs were fresh and plentiful, but damn, they were dirty birds.  She had a banana tree too.  I called its fruit "Gherkin Nanas".  The birds always got to them, though.