Marion nursing home prepares for new kind of therapy: backyard chickens

MARION - If the city agrees, the 87 residents at the Crestview Acres Nursing Home will have fresh eggs and backyard chicken therapy.

As it stands, Marion, Cedar Rapids and Iowa City all have ordinances that require the applicants for urban chicken permits to be owners of single-family homes.

Crestview Acres made a case before the Marion City Council last week that multifamily parcels operating as assisted, nursing, rest or convalescent homes should also be included in the ordinance that was enacted by the city in 2014. The council agreed at least initially, adopting the amendment on first reading.

'We did some research on chickens, and turns out, they are pretty therapeutic for a nursing home because a lot of residents had them growing up,” said Jody Kujath, activities director for the home at 1485 Grand Ave.

According to Medicare.gov, which compares nursing homes on measures including staffing, health care and safety inspections, the facility is rated overall at two out of five stars - below average - but has received above-average ratings in the categories of total staffing and registered nurse staffing.

Richard Risdale, 69, a Crestview Acres resident, grew up on a farm outside of Norway in Benton County. His family had more than 200 chickens and he would pick eggs from the hen house, wash them and bring them in for the family to eat.

'It would be nice to have some chickens around,” he said this week from his recliner, positioned by the window of his room that would overlook the chicken coop.

In studies compiled by the National Institutes of Health, researchers found animal programs at nursing homes and health centers have tendencies to make older people smile and talk more, reach out toward people, exhibit more alertness and attention and experience more symptoms of well-being and less depression.

This form of poultry therapy in nursing homes has already been practiced in places including England and Massachusetts. If passed, Kujath said Crestview Acres will be the first nursing home in Iowa to have chickens on the premises.

Kujath said the eggs would be used for baking and the manure for fertilizer. The chickens would also be fed with recycled vegetables from the home's kitchen.

The council's second reading of the ordinance revision is set for April 7.

'Unless there are some unexpected issues with it, and the City Council agrees, I think, it will skip the second revision and will be immediately adopted for the public to react to it,” said Tom Treharne, director of planning and development for the city. 'There are around 30 urban chicken permits in Marion, and we have only received one complaint.”

Cedar Rapids has 161 permits issued.

Crestview Acres is prepared for the rule change. A coop was donated to the home and built, and 15 residents and staff already took a training course and received a 'chicken certificate” - something required to receive a permit.

'There were a lot of people who seemed interested,” Leanne Brooks, 69, a Crestview Acres resident said about the class that was taught at the nursing home last month. 'They told us how to care for the chickens, and which chickens are the best to raise, and how they need fresh water and food every day. They also showed a video how chickens like to take baths in the dirt.”

The class was taught by the 'Sustainable Couple” of John Lane and Kelli Kennon-Lane of Marion, who worked with the city in 2014 to get the initial ordinance passed.

'Oh gosh, the class went really well,” Kennon-Lane said. 'The residents there had stories to share from their own families, and from their own experiences with chickens on the farm. ... We covered the same content that is in our classes usually at the Marion library, but I tried to cater it toward their living situation and their goals.”

'I just want to give them the same opportunities that you and I would have at our homes.”

If the amendment passes, the nursing home will get four chicks that will be raised until they are hens. In the winter, they'll be moved to the heated basement.

'I think it will be nice, and something different,” Brooks said. 'We never really have a lot of animals around, except for a very boring cat.”