Out of the Yardy, Into the Coop

Once we clean up this Yardy uprising, it's on to the backyard chicken debate, Mayor Ron Corbett said today.

I called him to talk about Yardies for my Tuesday column. And in two weeks, I may be calling him about chickens. Bonus.

He knows some citizens will cry foul. (Sorry)

“Two weeks from now, when we bring up the backyard chickens, people will get all roosted up about that issue, because how can we possibly be talking about backyard chickens and how can we be possibly talking about Yardies when we have all these other issues we're talking about," Corbett said.

Backyard chicken-backers are asking the city to allow a pilot project with 35 or 40 coops citywide, four or five chickens per-coop, Corbett said. They hope to show it's no big deal to raise farm-fresh eggs in the city. I think it's no big deal, but some egg to differ. (Sorry, again!)

And the timing of the debate is important.

“They want to know because people order their chickens in the spring. That's when you've heard ‘spring chickens.' So they order their chicks in the spring so late summer, fall, they're in a position to produce eggs," Corbett said.

It's a truly great time to be a columnist/blogger/wiseacre. If anyone knows how to convert a Yardy to a chicken coop, let me know asap.