Chicken fever seized Austin yesterday as over 1,000 people trekked through the strangers' backyards to see their chicken coops. As it turns out, backyard farming doesn't stop at the edge of the garden bed and a growing number of Austinites are raising chickens and ducks. The 2nd Annual Funky Chicken Coop Tour gives people the chance to find out more about urban poultry husbandry and highlights 17 creative chicken shacks.Carla Crownover from Austin Urban Gardens and I explored started at Buck More Feed & Supply where we learned about standard chicken coop housing from MobileChickenCoops.com and chicken feed and snacks from Happy Hen Treats. (Meal Worm Frenzy anyone?)
I'm not sure why I was surprised that there is an Austin Backyard Poultry Meetup Group or even a chicken breed iPhone app, Pickin' Chicken from Funny Farm Industries. Yes, there is an app for that.As we poked through the first five stops on the tour, I was intrigued by the elaborate coop designs and how many homes had more than one coop. Both of these coops are from stop 1 (5804 Shoal Creek Blvd.).
Four of the five houses we visited also had backyard vegetable gardens, several with pretty creative decorations. The founder of Gardenheads, a program that teaches children how to garden, hosted one of the stops.
As interesting as the coops were, the chickens were the real stars of the day.
This chicken was getting ready for Easter by nesting in her Easter basket.
A rooster even got in on the act. He lives inside at night as not to wake the neighbors.
To view other photos from our tour, check out my set on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/32002419@N05/sets/72157623643678475/
