Chickens are the new “must-have” for your backyard – even in urban areas. Do you want to “eat local”? You can’t get closer than your own yard. Keeping chickens is easy and fun. It’s less work than keeping a pet. And once you taste a truly fresh egg, you’ll never be satisfied with supermarket eggs again!

In the last few generations, our drive toward convenience has come at a great price. We have lost our relationship with the food that sustains us and diminished our sense of being at home on the earth. The groundswell interest in “eating local” seeks to regain that relationship. People all over the world are shopping at farmers’ markets and growing their own vegetables. They get fresher, better quality food, and they know where it came from.

Many people, even in cities, have begun keeping a few chickens to have fresh eggs. You can’t get more local than that! Increasingly, cities like Vancouver, BC, have lifted the ban on backyard chickens. It’s legal to keep chickens in Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, and even New York City.

What’s not to like about chickens? Only roosters are noisy; the “girls” are quiet. Your neighbours would never know they were there if your kids didn’t keep coming over to watch them and help with the chores. (And, yes, chickens will still lay eggs without a rooster.)

If you have just two or three birds, there’s no “barnyard smell” to worry about. And if you’re a gardener – well, you can’t buy better fertilizer than composted chicken manure!

All you need to keep chickens is a predator-proof shelter, a source of food and a few minutes a day to do minimal chores.

You don’t have to live in the country to be a “locavore”. Discover the benefits of eating local, even to having eggs from your own backyard.