The new fad / 'hot' pet? the chicken! Wall street journal

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yup, wall street journal, march 29th 2002.

'the chicken coup', talks about a co. that sells 1,500. 'henspa' coops w/ water heaters. a workshop in seattle on how to raise chickens in the city. murray-mcmurray hatchery qouted as saying sales to chic zip-codes has grown 25% in the past two years. and the spaying of a hen is said to cost 400.$ oh-vey!

many people find out that they don't like mucking a coop, or the neighbors don't like clucking so there is a high amount of unwanted birds. but it sounds like there is an opportunity here for those of us living near cities. put the word out at vets-animal shelters, & the unwanted birds could be given to you!

the fellow who teaches the workshop gets so many birds dumped on him that he struck a deal w/ a local resturant!

the coops pictured would do martha proud, swiss chalet looks marginally functional, but the egg mcmansion is outrageous!

-- bj pepper ,in central MS. (pepper.pepper@excite.com), April 12, 2002

Answers

Spaying of a hen?? lol

-- mary (mlg@mlg.com), April 12, 2002.

That article was a scream!

I showed it to my boss who is a real Martha Stewart fan and she got that gleam in her eye. Her husband said NO in very firm tones. : ) Of course she's already got two burros and a goat so he probably feels put upon quite enough.

.......Alan.

-- Alan (athagan@atlantic.net), April 12, 2002.


Great News! We just plugged in and loaded our 1600 egg incubator! OK, so what's the mark up for a pet chicken (39.95?) and do I have to housebreak them first? he he he.

We've got lots of Golden Comet large brown eggs, and duck eggs and teeney little bamtam eggs too. Gonna pick up more eggs in morning. Gonna fill that puppy up.

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@msn.com), April 12, 2002.


Can one still access that article? Thanks, Julie in OK

-- Julie (okwilk213@juno.com), April 12, 2002.

I looked on their site, wsj.com, but I couldn't find an archive or a search option. I'd like to read the article, too. A few months ago the lifestyle supplement of The Seattle Times did an article and photo spread about yuppie types raising chickens----most of the houses were ridiculously elaborate...imagine the most grandiose kids' playhouse you've ever seen and add a ramp for chickesn to walk up. The part that cracks me up is that these folks seem to think that they discovered how interesting and fun it is to raise chickens. Along these lines, William Grimes, the restaurant critic for The New York Times, had a hen mysteriously appear in his backyard in Queens. He took care of her and wrote a series of articles about the experience, and it's now a book. Why in the world would anyone want or need to spay a hen?

-- Jeff (lorianandjeff@aol.com), April 12, 2002.


My co-worker gave me that article as well. It is a very interesting tend. Reminds me of the trend going on over at the Poultry Connection. I don't post over there very often because I got tired of getting yelled at for "free ranging" my hens. The site seems to be taken over by folks who think you need a $100 in meds to keep a $1 hen alive in confinement. I love the folks who "clean the coop and water bowl every day!" I told them my healthy two year-old flock drinks mostly out of the sheep water tank or the mud puddles, even if the water container inside the coop is full. Go figure?

They tell me turkeys and chickens can not live together. I said tell that to the wild turkeys that just went past the window ten minutes after my flock went the other way!

A friend told me there are three types of chicken people. The pet owner who will spend lots of money on a few worthless chickens. The show person who will spend lots of money and time on many chickens to breed toward "the standard" (what ever that is for today). And then there is the utilitarian farmer who spends as little as possible on as healthy as possible chickens because they eat them or sell them. That's me. I really just like seeing them on the lawn. I give away my eggs and sell only the roosters. I don't really like eggs or chicken meat all that much.

-- BossNass (chrisnass@hotmail.com), April 12, 2002.


sorry ms. cindy, the ya-hoos,uh, urbanites are spending the dough on housing their beauties. not decent sized yards for the birds but 2 & 3 level palaces! but who knows maybe you could crack open the market for already socialized birds. ;) ->puns always intended<-

well mr. jeff, when the overcoddled-probably overfed-definitely underexercised hen starts to have problems laying the concerned owner takes it to be spayed! (yeah i know genetict defects are a posibility too in laying prob.)

now that i'm thru insulting those that build chicken palaces...i'll come clean, 2 yrs. & a wee bit over budget my pullets have the prettiest palace in the state! friends have started calling it 'cheops' & that the great wall of china went up quicker, to which i reply by handing them a hammer. they shut up then. LOL!

i'll post pics. when planting crush has slowed down! & my beauties have gotten past the almost decided what direction my feathers are going stage.

-- bj pepper ,in central MS. (pepper.pepper@excite.com), April 15, 2002.


Personally, I rather find some of those yuppie types who pay an annual fee for a share in owning a chicken, goat, pig, etc. You keep the animal and care for it, they send $. I think what they get in return is a glossy 8x10 photo of "their" chicken or whatever to hang on their living room wall. Maybe you also mail them one egg a year or send them a sandwich bag full of pig poop, er....garden fertilizer. When I read about that in one of those glossy country type magazines, I knew I'd been going about homesteading all wrong all these years.

-- Lenette (kigervixen@nospam.com), April 15, 2002.

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