On urban homesteading
The Dervaes homestead in Pasadena, CA. Photo: Path to Freedom
It was reported back in December that the Chicago city council was considering a ban on raising poultry in the city. That legislation has yet to move forward, thankfully.
One of the blogs that’s always fun to read is the Path to Freedom Journal, which documents an urban homesteading project in Pasadena, California. The Dervaes family are successfully raising poultry and other small livestock in a city, and it’s amazing how much food they manage to get out of their standard-sized suburban lot. I think it’s inspiring and I hope to see more of this kind of stuff, not less.
The homestead yields 6,000 lbs of produce yearly. Photo: Path to Freedom
I don’t know about the legal status of chickens in Elgin. I can see the case for outlawing roosters, but hens don’t make any noise, and they’re a pleasant reminder of where food comes from. And of course those who have a problem with cage farming can still get their eggs. I know poultry is being raised in surrounding cities. I’ve talked to kids who brought their chickens to the Kane County Fair and some of them are raising them in places like St. Charles and Geneva.
Chickens make great pets. Photo: Path to Freedom
A little more reading:
Although there are no firm statistics on the number of city chickens, they are becoming so popular that Backyard Poultry magazine was relaunched a couple of years ago after halting publication in the 1980s. And Paul said U.S. sales of his company’s designer chicken coops have doubled every year since they were introduced here in 2005.
Those who have eaten eggs from their own chickens say they are far fresher and tastier than store-bought eggs.
“And they’re so productive for the garden,” said Owen Taylor, training and livestock coordinator of Just Food, a New York-based nonprofit group. “They aerate the soil, eat bugs and they look like little tractors, tilling the soil.”
Taylor said he was surprised that Chicago  a city that banned foie gras in restaurants over concerns about cruelty to geese and embraced rooftop gardening  is not more welcoming of chickens.
“The mayor has bees on the roof of City Hall so I was thinking Chicago was ahead of its time in terms of livestock regulations,” said Taylor. (MSNBC 12/12/07)
Do you know of anybody raising chickens in Elgin? Please comment.
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If anybody is interested in raising poultry, check out this post on LifeinElgin.
“Want some Buff Orpingtons, White Rocks, Red stasr, White Leghorns, Black Australorps, assorted Bantams or Blue Marans? Prices start at $2 and the birds range in age from a few days old to a few years. Perfect if you want pets, tasty eggs, or both.”
Interesting. I just did a search for local food co-ops in Elgin and this came up. My husband is a teacher at RBHS and teaches in their SEE Team (School of Environmental Science.) We have been toying with the idea of having some hens, particularly if we move to a house with a larger yard. We currently live in Elgin and I was curious what the status on it was here, and am surprised to find this question also raised online, where I know you can find virtually everything and anything!
It’s a strange world living here without the crowing and cackling of chickens every day for a country girl like me. I would love for my daughters to know more about farm life and where food (not the processed non-food people now consider edible!) comes from. We do our best, and we have found some great local places for organic locally grown food:
The Harvest Market in downtown Elgin
Heritage Prairie Farm in Elburn, IL
and we order local organic food each week from the wonderful delivery service at
http://www.NaturalDirect.com (out of Oswego, IL)
I’ll be bookmarking your site!
:)
Amanda
Hi Amanda, glad you found the site. Make yourself at home!
I was considering getting some hens for our backyard after seeing some of my friends do it in California. I just don’t know what would happen to them in the dead of winter. Can they survive in a simple hen house?
I guess it doesn’t matter until they legalize it for Elgin.
Erik
Yes, they can survive the winter. I believe they need a small heat source in the hen house though. You can find a lot of information with some research.
Not surprisingly, chickens are in fact banned in Elgin. But I’ve heard from people in other communities where they are also banned have them anyway and no one complains. I’d love to see an Elginite enact some civil disobedience via a henhouse. ;)
The weird thing is that Elgin just decided to ban them when they were going through the pit bull stuff. They were legal until recently.
[snark on] Actually, gallinas are allowed in Elgin, and they don’t need papers. It’s some affirmative action thing.
No, chickens were not legal in Elgin until recently.
Long time ordinance prohibits farm animals - pigs, sheep, cows, chickens.
How to make a civil disobedience chicken lover into a law abiding responsible citizen; when his neighbor on the bedroom side of his property gets a rooster.
Picking and choosing which laws to obey might not be the best of career moves for a CPA.
They probably wouldn’t enforce it anyway unless the neighbors complain.
This summer somebody in SWAN had a rooster. I heard it regularly as I was doing my morning gardening. From inside the house you couldn’t hear anything. Personally, I don’t want to raise chickens but don’t really care if my neighbors have them. However, I want a sheep! Cutting the grass has really gotten old! Perhaps I should start a letter writing campaign to the City.
I would go with a goat. They’re smaller so they should be more manageable, and the goat milk is a nice benefit too.
McHenry just voted to note allow them. I’d be for chickens though. Might have to do some research on how they’d handle the winters. My relatives have a farm in Iowa and I don’t think they had anything special set up for their poultry, so I would like to believe that it wouldn’t be a problem.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-mchenry-votes-not-to-allow-backyard-chickens-20111004,0,1173299.story
I think all you need is a heat lamp. I’m assuming at minimum you need to keep the water from freezing so the birds can drink.
OK quick Googling says you don’t really need to heat the henhouse…