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Photos by Frank Couch and Erica Techo.
Marion Webb of Mountain Brook keeps chickens in her backyard and has built what she calls Cluckingham Palace as a roost for her laying hens.
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Betsy Spivey holds one of her three chickens. Spivey started keeping hens after seeing a documentary on the living conditions of egg-laying hens.
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Ron Fritze stands with his nephew Christopher outside of their chicken coop Cap’s Coop.
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Around four years ago, Marion Webb did not understand the point of raising chickens. All it took to change her mind was renting two chickens and an A-frame coop from a friend.
“I had them for about 24 hours, and after about 24 hours I had about 10 hens and a new coop,” Webb said. “I fell in love with them immediately.”
The next day Webb purchased an old children’s playhouse and converted it to a chicken coop where she could keep more than two hens. She soon outgrew that system, however, and she turned a larger coop into Cluckingham Palace.
“Once I had Cluckingham Palace, I decided the chickens needed to live like I live, so I put artwork on the walls and they have swings in there,” Webb said. “They have like a condo in there.”
Webb is one of many Mountain Brook residents participating in the urban hen trend, where city residents keep hens in non-agricultural areas.
“Urban chicken farming is a contemporary phenomenon,” said Dana Hazen, director of planning, building and sustainability for Mountain Brook. “People from decades ago would laugh at that because it’s not contemporary at all, but it’s enjoying a resurgence in cities.”
The city of Mountain Brook has no ordinances to prohibit or regulate urban hens, Hazen said, and she believes the city can hold off writing an ordinance until chickens become a nuisance or create a problem.
“Until someone negatively impacts their neighbor and we hear about it, we don’t write,” Hazen said. “We just don’t want to be so heavy-handed that we sit here and write ordinances all day long about every potential possibility.”
By not having an ordinance, Hazen said the city is allowing people to participate in a sustainable practice. With urban hens, residents who are conscious about where their eggs come from are able to raise their own hens and get eggs from their backyard.
Hazen has also researched urban hens to determine how they could potentially affect neighbors. If they ever wrote an ordinance, Hazen said it might specifically prohibit roosters or limit the number of hens depending on lot size. For now, however, she just recommends people give their neighbors a heads up.
“I tell people to talk to their neighbors so the neighbors won’t be surprised,” Hazen said. “Hopefully their neighbors will never know the hens are there and that’s kind of the goal because it’s obviously not affecting them if they don’t know they’re there. Unless you bring them eggs.”
Cap’s coop
Cheryl and Ron Fritze chose to get chickens for their nephew, Christopher Paul Alexander.
Christopher is a fifth-grader at Cherokee Bend Elementary and has special needs. The chickens are good therapy for him, Cheryl said, and he has his own egg “business,” Cap’s Coop.
After Christopher mentioned getting chickens, his aunt took him to see a coop at Sam’s.
“That was the end of it once I did that,” Cheryl said.
They considered purchasing a coop, but Ron decided to build his own when his wife was out of town. He looked up plans online to figure out the best fit for their yard.
“It started out as a weekend project and it took two weeks,” he said.
The Fritzes have had chickens for a year as of Easter and are considering expanding on their coop and getting more chickens as the weather warms up. As part of Cap’s Coop, Christopher takes egg “orders” from his friends and teachers, and his uncle said having more chickens would allow Christopher to have more eggs for his business.
Over the last year, Cheryl said she has learned a lot about chickens and the phrases they inspire. Watching her chickens interact gives more meaning to “pecking order” or “hen-pecked,” she said.
The chickens all have their own place in the coop and will push each other out of the way when roosting, her husband said.
“They all definitely have a little bit of a personality,” he said.
Overall, he said, they enjoy just getting to watch their chickens. He and his wife will sit on the porch with a cup of coffee and watch as the chickens roam the yard. The chickens normally do not draw attention, Cheryl said, except for when they wander into the front yard and confuse people walking in the area.
“They’re pretty quiet,” she said. “Except they really make a lot of noise when they’re laying an egg, which I would too.”
The Chick-Inn
Betsy Spivey first felt the pull toward urban hens after seeing a documentary on how egg-laying hens are treated in large-scale businesses.
“I started thinking about getting backyard chickens just so I didn’t feel guilty buying eggs from chickens that were abused,” Spivey said. “And then our garden club had a meeting on chicken keeping, and after that I couldn’t stand it anymore. I went and got three chicks and raised them.”
Raising chickens has been a huge learning curve, she said, and she continues to learn about chicken diseases, predators and diet. Her favorite part, she said, is seeing the egg-laying process from beginning to end.
“I think it’s a real learning experience for me because you just go to the store and buy a carton of eggs,” she said. “You don’t really realize what a hen goes through to have an egg. I was so excited when I got my first egg. I put it on Facebook.”
Spivey grew up in Mountain Brook and said she is glad the city allows residents to have chickens if they want. She said she has tried other sustainable practices but to no avail.
“I’ve also tried my hand at backyard gardening, but I haven’t been as successful with that. Mainly because you eat it,” she said, directing her attention to one of her hens, Gatsby.
Cluckingham Palace
Webb has learned a lot since she got her first two chickens, Ellen and Louise. Back then, she had to paint Ellen’s toenails bright pink to tell them apart, and she also did not know to clip their wings.
“I get a phone call. It’s my neighbor,” Webb said. “… She goes, ‘Do you have chickens?’ I just went, ‘Why do you ask?’ and she said, ‘Because I have got a dang hen running around in my garage and someone’s painted its toenails pink.’ I said, ‘That’d be Ellen. That’s my hen.’”
In addition to clipping their wings, Webb has learned to take care of chickens, and her friends will approach her with hen-related questions.
As a former elementary school teacher, Webb said the educational aspect of raising chickens is one of her favorites. Webb will take her hens to speaking engagements at garden clubs or elementary schools, and she oftentimes has people come over to see Cluckingham Palace.
“A lot of times people will come over here, and when they walk in the coop and see the coop, it is ridiculous, so that is when I get the reactions,” she said. “They’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, these chickens are princesses.”
She has decorated the coop’s walls with artwork from Studio by the Tracks and chicken-related quotes. Chicken keeping is not for everyone, she said, and her idea of taking care of hens is different than other people’s ideas for hens.
Learning about chickens has been years of trial and error, Webb said, and she’s not sure if she will every know everything about them.
“Every time I think I’m proficient with chicken raising, the chickens show me up,” she said.
