City Chicks

Local Parents Dish on the Challenges - And Joys - of Keeping A Backyard Flock

- Aleigh Acerni

It started out innocently enough: Jennifer Webster wanted to ease her daughter’s anxiety about moving to a new home. So she played up one of the most exciting features of their new house — a new, big backyard to play in — and mentioned a perk she didn’t expect her daughter to latch onto. “We talked about things that could be exciting,” Webster says. “Getting an animal. Or some chickens.”

Fast-forward a few months, and she was planning her daughter’s fifth birthday party. It was Wynnie’s first sleepover. The theme? Chickens.

“It was a chicken party! We had the coop delivered with chickens a few days before,” Webster says. “Her friends loved it. They still come over and want to get inside the coop and let them out and try to catch them.”

Why Have Chickens? It’s More than Just the eggs

Several years have passed since the Websters got their first chickens, but they’re more devoted to their flock than ever. They’re even planning to add to their flock this spring.

“What I love most is having the eggs,” Webster says. “There’s definitely a huge difference in the flavor and also the color of them [in comparison to store-bought eggs].”

Having fresh eggs was the draw for Erin Zelickson, too. But she also likes knowing where her food comes from — even more so after she decided to become a vegetarian.

“I’ve always had a super soft spot for animals anyway,” she says. But after reading about the meat-packing industry, she stopped eating meat immediately. “I was like, OK, no more meat. No more buying eggs, because we don’t know where they’re coming from. I wanted to know that [the chickens] were happy.”

Seven years later, Zelickson has a 15-month-old son, Rett, and in her Cotswold backyard, her flock has grown to nine hens.