Simpler Living
By Fiona Wagner • Bankrate.com

(In case you're wondering – you don't need a rooster to get eggs. Roosters are necessary only if you want to hatch chicks yourself or if you're looking to dispose of your alarm clock.)

The chicks will start their life here under heat lamps in a brooder box. At around six weeks of age, once they're fully feathered, they'll move outside to the chicken yard where our birds can bask in the sun, scratch in the dirt and eat all the bugs they can stomach.

Eventually, I'd like to try raising some heirloom breeds such as the rare Chantecler, designated by the Quebec government as a provincial heritage animal, because I think it's important to preserve traditional farm breeds that might otherwise become extinct. There are also some lovely exhibition breeds that are bred for beauty, not their work ethic, but I'm a low-maintenance kinda girl myself, so I'm not sure how well me and these prima donnas might get on.

Chickens in the city
Raising chickens was a no-brainer for us, but there is a growing movement for raising hens in the city. While backyard flocks are almost a common occurrence in the much of the U.S., only a handful of cities across Canada permit keeping chickens, including Niagara Falls, Ont., Brampton, Ont., Victoria and most recently, Vancouver. It seems that chickens have a bad rap for being smelly, noisy and are at risk for transmitting deadly avian flu.

Nonsense, say the pro-chicken activists. While roosters can be noisy, hens are actually quite quiet (except for a brief squawk when they lay their eggs, which is nothing compared to your neighbour's yelping dog) and if properly managed, aren't smelly. Avian flu is commonly associated with unsanitary factory farm-like condition, not small backyard flocks.

What's more, they say, keeping a few chickens in the backyard gives urbanites a taste of the good life and a hands-on way to support a more sustainable, local food system. If that doesn't inspire you, perhaps the taste of really great tasting eggs will. I promise you, once you've tasted fresh farm eggs, it'll be tough to go back to eating the stale grocery-store version.

You can still reap the benefits of fresh eggs even if watching hens scratch around in the backyard isn't your idea of entertainment (though it really is entertaining, I can assure you). Support your local farmers' market and buy direct from the people who produce your food. Your stomach will thank you for it.

You can read the previous installment of Simpler Living here.

Fiona Wagner [www.fionawagner.com] is a freelance writer and new farmer in Marmora, Ont.