Urban Chickens

"If you love something set it free.  If it comes back to you, it's yours.  If it doesn't, it never was"

Well two of our hens ain't coming back...  I guess they were never ours.  Let me explain.  My brother lives in the middle of New Orleans-not on the outskirts of the city-right smack dab in the middle.  Neighbors on either side.  A sidewalk out front, for crying out loud.  But he has a box of bees in his backyard, a garden, a compost pile, and now...  Chickens! 

I got a call from him asking me if I had 2 hens that I could spare because he and my sister-in-law wanted fresh eggs.  Believe it or not, New Orleans has a livestock ordinance that allows you to keep chickens in the city as long as you abide by certain restrictions.  Part of the ordinance says this "...It shall be unlawful for any person to keep a hog or to permit one to run at large."  If my brother's urban farm expands to hogs, I'll have to brief him on the legality of letting them roam at large.  

They say the chickens come home to roost.  These will have quite a journey to come back to Jennings.

So my brother showed up on Saturday with my mom's turkey cage in the back of his truck.  My mom is not a turkey farmer, although she'd probably tell you she raised a few!  (Ba dum bum)  No, this cage never held a turkey and was a merely a "conversation piece" in our home.  My bro somehow now holds title to this artifact and put it into its intended service.  Why, you can see in the photo below, after we loaded up the Barred Rock Hens for their Excellent Adventure to New Orleans, they promptly christened Mom's cage.  

Time to get this party started.

So as my brother headed out of our driveway with hens in tow, we bid them farewell and wish them the best.  They've lived a sheltered existence here on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.  We hope they will develop the 'street smarts' they'll need to make it in the city. 


Experiencing the empty nest syndrome...

We got a call later that afternoon and learned that after being in NOLA for only twenty minutes, one of them laid an egg.  So I guess they're transitioning well...