Me, when I want eggs, I buy them at Trader Joe's for 99 cents a dozen. When landscape designer Jennifer Carlson wants eggs, she reaches into her chicken coop. Not on some farm out in Snohomish County, either, but her backyard in Magnolia. City of Seattle lets you keep three hens on a typical, 5,000-square-foot residential lot.
Under the auspices of Seattle Tilth, Carlson was teaching an Easter weekend class in chicken-coop building at the Good Shepherd Center, explaining everything from construction techniques to sourcing chicks to a dozen or so intrepid urbanites. Why raise poultry in the city? Aside from the obvious (fresh eggs) and the politically correct (recycling), there's this: chickens are funny. They bring a sense of humor to daily life.
No, you don't need a rooster. No, bird flu isn't a danger. Yes, chickens recycle kitchen waste. Can't see doing this on my balcony in Belltown, even though Carlson makes it sound inviting, if not necessarily cheaper; a dozen store-bought eggs a week is only 50 bucks a year, after all. But fresh eggs are sooo much tastier. "It's a lifestyle," Carlson says.
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