Yes, I do! I recently volunteered at the Southern Spring Show for Mecklenburg County's Wipe Out Waste program. While I was there, I visited the display of Rooster Hill Farms to stoke my own backyard chicken fantasies. In a last ditch effort to obtain chickens for the neighborhood Earth Day event, I sent an e-mail to Randy, the owner of Rooster Hill Farms. Truthfully, I did not expect him to come through, but he surprised me. Within four hours, I received an enthusiastic "Yes!"
When Randy and I spoke by phone, he committed to bring a small chicken tractor (mobile chicken coop), a few very docile hens for the kids to feed by hand, and baby chicks to tug at the heartstrings of neighbors, who will be voting in September about whether to allow backyard chickens. Randy is very excited about the opportunity to teach kids about chickens and eggs. He also shared that he was instrumental in convincing the city council of a small suburban town on Charlotte's outskirts to allow backyard chickens there. Randy will be a great ally and perhaps the hit of the show! Most importantly, this win has given me the psychological boost I need to stay excited about the project.
If all you do is create an opening for the chickens to happen in your HOA, then this whole thing will be worth it. But truthfully, there will be alot more that comes from this event.
ReplyDeleteChickens are awesome to have - except maybe a nasty rooster who awakens folks early and chases people.
I have mostly raised my own chickens in my adult life and I can't tell you how much better those back yard eggs are. Once people see the advantages of the backyard chicken coop, they will not go back. It is a whole new way of life - and they love to eat bugs so move them around the yard in their chicken tractors and you have a natural pesticide, lawn mower, and fertilizer all rolled into one. Life doesn't get better than this... so much for industrialized chickens and eggs where they never see the light of day or eat real food. If people visited a chicken factory and saw the thousands of chickens raised on top of each other, they would never buy another industrialized egg. We have to get back to our source.