Chicken Revolution

Despite the growing national Urban Chicken movement, not everyone is convinced about the benefits of backyard poultry.

I got a note this morning from Barbara Palermo with the Salem, Ore.-based Chickens in the Yard. Enthusiasts there have been working on local leaders for nearly a year to allow residents to keep a few hens.

The Wall Street Journal recently published this article about Barbara's crusade, which nicely sums up the debate playing out in cities here in the Corridor and around the country:

Enthusiasts say chickens make great pets, especially for young children, and that their eggs taste much better than the store-bought kind. Ms. Palermo also uses chicken waste as fertilizer for her vegetable garden and composter and feeds grass clippings, carrot tops, and other green waste to her birds. "In 24 hours, it will be an egg and fertilizer," she says.Advocates, who also tout the economic benefits of having free eggs, say the recession is driving an interest in backyard gardens that increasingly include chicken coops.But critics of the backyard coops say chickens attract "It's silliness," says Terri Frohnmayer, a commercial

Advocates, who also tout the economic benefits of having free eggs, say the recession is driving an interest in backyard gardens that increasingly include chicken coops.

But critics of the backyard coops say chickens attract raccoons, coyotes, and other pests and that they create unsanitary conditions. And the foes say the cited economic benefits are nonsense. Just building a coop can cost hundreds of dollars and raising hens is time-consuming.

"It's silliness," says Terri Frohnmayer, a commercial real-estate broker who is co-chairwoman of one of Salem's 19 neighborhood associations and lives outside town next to a farm that has chickens. "Eggs aren't even that expensive anyway. What's next? Goats? Llamas?" Her advice to hen-loving neighbors: "Get a farm."

Barbara's in the fight to win, and Chickens in the Yard is filming a documentary about it. Here's the trailer.