Hard times create chicken coop comeback

AUSTIN (KXAN) - There is more than one way to skin a chicken, including not skinning it all.

"My husband and I, we watch chicken television," said East Austin chicken raiser Ixchel Granada. "You start just watching them and they have such amazing personalities."

"Me, I like them for the fertilizer and as pets," said Tracie Downing, another East Austin chicken enthusiast. "I'm actually vegan so I've been giving away eggs like crazy."

Granada gets all the eggs she wants with just one chicken. Downing's coop contains six hens and a couple of chicks. Just down the road, however, Boggy Creek Farm, an organic operation that supplies food to customers all over town, boasts a much bigger coop. Sixty birds populate it now and owner Carol Ann Sayle plans to add 50 more.

"This is what it's all about; this is it," she said, lovingly rubbing a couple of freshly harvested eggs against her cheeks. "This is like gold."

Across Interstate 35, near Downtown Austin, another chicken raiser takes things well beyond chicken television and egg gathering.

Van Harrison, an independent building contractor who created his own large coop for a mere $500, occasionally turns a hen into a meat dish using a time honored method.

"You know, just off with the head," he said. "You know, and just let the blood drain completely and then dip the body in the hot water which will release the feathers."

The point is this: There are as many ways to use chickens to maintain and enhance life in tough economic times as there are chicken raisers. More and more people are sticking their toes in the proverbial "poop" of coop construction. A seminar at a local organic garden nursery last year drew three hundred people. Chick sellers report skyrocketing sales as people add coops to the organic gardens cropping up in backyards all over town.

There is, however, a learning curve. One of Sayle's birds gets by on just one eye, the other having been claimed by a skunk. Still, most of her flock does just fine.

"My chickens live at least to 10 years old and I've got one, Aunt Droptail, who is 15 this year," Sayle said. "So, you know, it's kind of like a parrot, you know: When are they going to die, you know."

Downing added the birds to her life just nine months ago, after a detailed and careful research effort.

"I laid wire down on the ground to keep animals from digging," she said, "because [racoons] and dogs will dig under coops and a lot of people lose their chickens that way."

Now Downing wants to share what she has learned. She and some fellow chicken raisers are creating the first " Funky Austin Chicken Coop Tour," scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday.

The event will get by "on a budget," as she puts it, so there will be no fancy brochures or maps. A downloadable map is available online, however, complete with addresses and a brief note about what each site offers. Some coop owners are planning to offer refreshments and even live music at their houses. Fun is mandatory but the idea is to spread the word about how chickens can join gardens in providing tasty, quality, organic, fresh food just steps from the house, not to mention "chicken television."

Granada picks up the front end of her coop, technically known as a "tractor," and moves it across the yard so her chicken can enjoy fresh scratching ground. She looks lovingly at the bird and a small chick scampering around in the grass.

She smiles and sums it all up: "They remind you to just slow down and take it easy and stop and smell the chicken poop, you know."

Here's a map of the tour:

View Austin Funky Chicken Coop Tour Map 2009 in a larger map