CLUCK news: Coop Tours Celebrate Chickens

Not only are chickens being tolerated in many American cities, they are now being celebrated. The July 25th Dining section of the New York Times leads with an article "Where It All Comes Home to Roost" that features the Tour de Cluck in Davis, a California city of 65,000 as well as chicken coop tours in Seattle, Salem Oregon, Madison Wisconsin, Santa Fe, and Austin.

Poster for Coop Tour in Lexington Kentucky

Meanwhile, the latest issue (Vol. 7 No. 4) of Backyard Poultry magazine has an article on how to organize a coop tour. That article mentions tours in both Portland and Salem oregon, both Raleigh and Durham North Carolina, East Dallas Texas, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Madison Wisconsin.


According to an idealized sequence proposed in 7 STAGES OF CHICKEN KEEPING IN THE U.S., Coop Tours represent the sixth stage of chicken keeping in the US: "Relaxation -- Celebration". In this phase cities that already allow chickens relax restrictions through reduced permitting requirements and/or allowing an increased number of birds. In addition "cities advertise coop tours and embrace their identity as being chicken-friendly. Allowing chickens now suggests a progressive community." 

CLUCK NEWS: Wall Street Journal Meets Backyard Hens

No one was too surprised when the New York Times started running sympathetic articles about urban chickens, but an upbeat Kris Maher article in the Wall Street Journal (subscribe today and get four weeks free) certainly seems to suggest a growing acceptance of backyard chickens. The focus of the article is the increasing numbers of coop tours, which usually feature play-on-words titles such as Tour de Coops or A Peep at the Coops. In Seattle this year nearly 50 households opened their coops for inspection. The article mentions that the forum on the backyardchickens website just topped 100,000 members.