Discussion: Fowl in Cambridge?

Do the Cambridge bylaws have anything to say about keeping chickens in the city?

And, on a not 100% facetious note, how close to Cambridge do you suppose the nearest land is that's zoned for agricultural use, where one *could* keep chickens?

And, on a completely perpendicular tangent :-), I clipped an article years back about a woman on the Cape who kept chickens and tomatoes in two halves of a greenhouse, exchanging gases back and forth. The waste heat from the chickens kept the tomatoes warm all winter. The CO2 and O2 were exchanged between the two sides, with the result that she had perennial tomatoes, with stems as thick as your arm.

There are definitely farms in Arlington.

There are chickens in Cambridge. I have heard mixed stories about what is allowed in Cambridge, but I figure that if other people have chickens, then I could get away with it too. My plan is to check with the neighbors first, because I've heard that recommendation several times. Sometimes you can keep hens but not roosters for obvious reasons. The thing that is keeping me in check about getting chickens at the moment is that I'd like at least one other enthusiast in my house or next door.

I like the shared greenhouse idea. Just add mushrooms and you've got the main ingredients for chicken cacciatore. I don't have any room for a greenhouse though, unless I tap into the top of the garage, on the neighbors' sunny side, which I'm thinking about - but not for a greenhouse, just more potted veggies.

I believe a small but significant step on the route to chicken cacciatore is that the chicken's head has to come off. I'm assuming Dave will be the one to handle that chore.

I very much doubt we'll be eating any living chickens we may share our space with. Removing the feathers sounds like too much of a chore.

Do not eat living chickens. They are not oysters. However, removing the head is often (though not always) sufficient to get them to stop living.

I am NOT following that link, and let's talk about something else.

I followed the link and I'm shocked. (Not by the content, but by the fact that I hadn't heard anything about it.) As a kid, I read Ripley's Believe It or Not, the Guiness Book, and trivia books avidly. I didn't remember anything about this.

People.

Wow. Who'd a thunk it?

It's actually sort of a *good* news story.

OK, I'm getting slightly tempted, but there's still no way. I don't want to know.

If Dasha ever saw that, I would have to become a vegetarian, too. In fact, that is just about sufficient to make be convert unilaterally and spend the rest of my life atoning and eating gravel. Which, incidentally, Mike probably couldn't do.

Getting over my umbrage... I always maintained chickens tended to be ... duller animals. I suppose this lends credence to that.

RE: Let's talk about something else:

We buy a veggie (actually, gluten-free! for Brenna) fake chicken strips. I can't remember who makes it, but it goes great in stir-fry. Find it in your grocery store near the tofu and tempeh.

You do have tofu and tempeh outside New England, I hope.

How many eggs do you guys eat, anyway? Enough to justify having chickens around? Or are you thinking of them primarily as pets? We have chicken farms in my area (not sure how many are still active). Biggest problem with chickens in my opinion: chicken manure.

Can't speak for Barb, but Melissa and I were thinking 4 chickens. Apparently if you have hens and no rooster, one of the hens will often take over the rooster role (in some aspects, any way) and stop laying eggs. We'd then have only 3 hens laying eggs. That could still be a lot more eggs than we could use (or give away) but you can always hard boil the extras and feed them back to the hens!

And what are you going to do with the chickens when they are too old to lay eggs? I don't know how many years that is, but do remember someone trying to pawn hers off so she could get some new ones.

Chicken manure is a good thing if you have a garden.
Old chickens: I vaguely thought that by 4 or 5 years from now I could find a way to have them disappear. Like, how about that place in Somerville that says "Live Chickens, Fresh Killed"?

There are many possibilities if you don't mind killing them. Around here you could *let them out* for the coyotes.