The Great Chicken Adventure, part 1

Backyard chicken keeping is all the rage in the Bay Area. One of our Sloat staffers recently adopted two chickens... we asked her to document her 'chickens in the city' experience. At left are her ladies - Thelma is brown, Louise is black and white.

Last year I visited a friend and met her chickens having a wander in her garden. I was intrigued and began to ask others about their chickens.

Everyone reassured they were easy to keep. I like the idea of knowing where my food (in this case eggs) came from and the short journey to the table.

This seems like a natural progression in my lifelong gardening journey. After planting four fruit trees, creating a long vegetable bed and two compost piles, I now have a continuous source of chicken manure that will really make the compost rich.

We scheduled a seminar called Backyard Chickens 101 to inform our customers they too can keep chickens in the city. We will be scheduling more such seminars, perhaps one on building a coop…….

After lots of reading, web-surfing, and building a secure area, the “country” girls arrived on a drizzly Monday night in the big city. The next morning they cautiously venture from the coop to explore their new space.

Thelma is a Rhode Island Red, Louise is a Barred Plymouth Rock. Thelma is the more cautious of the two, Louise is adventurous and more comfortable with me (the Food Lady). Louise tucked into the freshly-made warm oatmeal with gusto. Thelma checked out the water situation…and we begin the process of getting to know each other.

Stay tuned for our next installment of "The Great Chicken Adventure".