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Writers:
Finding the Egg
Posted on Sept. 10, 2008 at 7:25 a.m. by Jill.
Nothing could compare with my excitement the first time I looked into the chicken coop and saw an egg lying there. I knew I would have one someday -- that's why we got the chicks, after all, was so they could grow into the little egg-laying machines they were programmed to be.
All the same, after all those months of feeding and cleaning up after them, to finally get the treasure of an egg that came from the sunlight and soil and chickens of our own Chicago backyard was a shock.
Since then, we've found another dozen over the course of three or four weeks.
It's working, this urban chicken experiment.
Frankly commented, on September 10, 2008 at 2:53 p.m.:
I don't have chickens, but I do have tomatoes this year. First time apartment farmer in the City! And I must say that I was just as excited to see the first ripened red fruit that my plant bore as probably you were, Jill with your first egg. Urban farming is new to me, as I grew up more rural, but I am learning to enjoy its challenges and eccentricities.
Cynthia commented, on September 10, 2008 at 4:18 p.m.:
Do the eggs taste different knowing the chickens so intimately?
Jill commented, on September 12, 2008 at 4:10 p.m.:
All food tastes different when you know it intimately.
I bet Frankly would say the same thing about his or her tomato.
You know how you might reject an imperfect egg or tomato if you were buying it at the supermarket? You never do that with food you grow yourself. I eat the split tomatoes, the cucumber with the slightly withered tip, the kale with holes in the leaves.
When I used to buy farm eggs at the Green City Market, I wouldn't buy the pullet eggs, the smaller ones that come from young hens. Now the pullet is my pullet--one I know personally, that I raised from a chick--and her egg is perfectly delicious.
Its yolk is a yellowish orange color, somewhere between the color of a school bus and a pylon. The yolk is dense, and doesn't easily break apart.
And the egg came from my own earth: the soil outside my house, the sun rays that happened to fall on the chickens and the bugs they eat, and from the leftover cheerios and cottage cheese and watermelon scraped off of my family's plates after dinner.
Lisa commented, on September 14, 2008 at 12:20 p.m.:
Congrats!
I and a few other neighbors are interested in starting a laying hen co-op of sorts in Logan Square...Can you point us to some resources for getting started (hopefully by next spring)? Thanks,
Lisa
Jill commented, on September 16, 2008 at 12:26 p.m.:
How tremendously cool!
Spring is a good time to start, with little chicks, so you're on the right track.
The reason I got chickens in the first place is because I happened to find a book called "Keeping Chickens: Tending Small Flocks in Cities, Suburbs, adn Other Small Spaces" by Barbara Kilarski. So get your hands on that book, it's inspiring.
For web sites, try "TheCityChicken.com."
If i'ts not so much chicken resoureces you're looking for, but rather guidance on an urban agricultural co-op, contact the folks at the Chicago Honey Co-op. http://chicagohoneycoop.com. They'll have good stories to swap.
If it's land you need to get your co-op started, try contacting NeighborSpace, a land trust that holds small parcels for community gardens and parks. (Some just the size of a city lot.) http://neighbor-space.org.
You might also want to meet some other Chicago chicken owners to see how they set up their yards for it. I'll try to post a couple of photos of mine.
Keep me posted! Good luck! Go Hens!
Laurene commented, on September 19, 2008 at 11:56 p.m.:
If you can't keep your own chickens, some of the CSAs are offering chicken and eggs as part of their subscription. Here is one:
http://www.sustainusa.org/familyfarme...
I don't know the chickens who give me these eggs but I know I can meet the lady who runs the farm that raises the chickens who give me the eggs that come in the box that goes to the church and that I pick up every thursday, every thursday.
Anyway it makes me happy.