Robert Litt - A Chicken in Every Yard: The Urban Farm Stores Guide to Chicken Keeping

Copyright 2011 by Robert
Litt and Hannah Litt

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com
Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Front cover illustration by Chris Hotz, Nemo Design.

Illustrations on iii, ).

Photos on 20072010 by Patrick Barber.

Illustrations on , Grow Food, from the Victory Garden of Tomorrow by Joe Wirtheim.

Photos on by Dan Johnson.

Illustration on by Jeff Bartel, Nemo Design.

Photos on by Robert Litt.

Illustration on by Ben Gurnsey, Nemo Design.

Photo on by Joshua Guuerra and Christina Pucci.

Photos on .

Photos on .

Photos on by Cynthia Schubert.

Coop diagrams on by Robert Litt.

Illustration on by Tim Kirkpatrick.

Illustration on by Leo Battersby, Nemo Design.

Anatomy of an amniotic egg on by Frank Horst.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Litt, Robert.
A chicken in every yard : the Urban Farm Stores guide to chicken keeping / by Robert and Hannah Litt. 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: This nuts-and-bolts guide to selecting and raising backyard chickens offers everything a first-time keeper needs to know, from the experts at the Urban Farm Store in Portland, OregonProvided by publisher.
Includes index.
1. Chickens. I. Litt, Hannah. II. Title.
SF487.L775 2011
636.5dc22

2010028185

eISBN: 978-1-60774-061-2

v3.1

ITS NOT UNUSUAL for couples to meet and later discover that they share an artistic passion, work in the same field, or a have a common religious tradition. For us, it was chicken keeping. Hannah had the most experience, having been around chickens since she was a child. I had been a backyard flock-farmer for only a year or so, but it had already become my favorite hobby. During our first summer together, we enjoyed the company of my small flock of two hens, knowing that we would soon add to it. Indeed, by the following spring our flock had expanded to eight birds, and the presence of several hatchery catalogs on the coffee table suggested that it would soon expand further.

That summer, we did not have a chicken-themed wedding, but we did get a lot of chicken-related gifts (thanks, Mom!). Hannah had recently found work in her true calling, nurse-midwifery, and I had just gone back to school for an advanced degree in agricultural science. While Hannah brought home the bacon, I studied the production of bacon.

During the course of my studies I became interested in how animals are fed and what effect these agricultural systems have on their health and, ultimately, our own. I remember looking at the label on my bag of organic chicken feed, trying to decipher what it contained: terms like processed grain by-products and plant protein products seemed a little vague and possibly sinister to me. I did some research and found that feed (thats food to you and me) was labeled in this way to give big mills the flexibility to formulate their feed from the cheapest ingredients available at any given time. Although this might be acceptable for most farmers, I suspected that I was not alone in wanting something more consistent and potentially healthier for my birds.

To test my theory, I first approached the folks on my local online chicken forum. I asked them whether they would be interested in buying feed that was grown mostly in our region and had quality ingredients that read more like a recipe than a list of commodities. With their encouragement, I commissioned my first 1-ton batch of Portland Layer (that is, feed for laying hens) from a local feed mill that did custom blending.

Following the lead of so many start-up businesses, I began selling this odd new feed from my garage. I often wondered what the neighbors thought of the mysterious cash transactions for enormous, unlabeled white bags. As the traffic around our house increased, Hannah suggested that perhaps a proper storefront would be more suitable for my venture than the driveway of an old Portland neighborhood.

FUN FACT There are more chickens than humans on earth.

I opened the Urban Farm Store in the spring of 2009 with a few bags of feed, a couple of cases of suet, and high hopes that I could transform a ramshackle former recording studio into a feed store. Hannah worked alongside me on her days off, and together we steered the little shop through a season of chick buying and selling, gradually increasing our customer base for the feed and helping others discover the joys of chicken keeping along the way.

From my perch behind the counter at this little store, I researched and answered peoples questions about their chickens for hours each day. Here I met folks who had elevated the chicken to full-fledged pet statusstopping just short of dressing them in tiny chicken sweaters (though I wouldnt be surprised if a few of them gave in to the temptation). I met other folks only interested in maximizing their egg production, and even a few who wanted me to teach them how to harvest their birds for meat.

Ive learned a lot about chickens from my customers and still more from my wife. Together wed like to share the best of this information with you.

WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK our chickens: Rosie, Yankee, Wissahickon, Ginger, Butternut, Buttercup, and Tweedy. We dont know how they pulled it off, but somehow our lives seem to revolve around them.

Thanks also to our families and friends for tremendous support and encouragement along the way. From recipes and recipe testing to suggestions for book titles, they had our backs. Iris, Jorjan, Annie, Mari, David, Stuart, Dale, Evan, Jonas, Bill, and Martha are dearly loved and much appreciated.

Hannah would like to thank her friends and childhood neighbors, the Hazzard family, to whom she traces the original inspiration for chicken keeping and backyard livestock keeping in general.

Wed also like to thank Tonya and Chris for sharing their extensive chicken experience with us since we opened the Urban Farm Store. Im sure they can see their advice throughout this book.

Thanks to all the people at the Urban Farm Store for everything you do.

Last, but not least, wed like to acknowledge the newest member of our family. Abigail, although you probably had no idea what was happening outside of mommys belly, we want you to know that you were our greatest inspiration to finish the book on time.