The Chicken Santa Hunt Mystery (With a Song)

Sometimes it's interesting when you spend a lot of time in your neighborhood.

Yesterday we took a short drive and, in front of the old high school on our Main Street, there was a Santa standing out on the sidewalk, waving to the traffic going by.

Not this Santa

Maybe it was a toy drive - a nearby parking lot seemed to have a lot of cars - but I haven't been able to find out what was going on.

Then, today, we took a neighborhood walk.  Someone else in our neighborhood, walking his dog, waved to us.  "Did you see the chickens on (name of street)? he asked.

"No..."

Not the chickens in our neighborhood but maybe the same breed

"Well", he continued, I saw two chickens walking down the road just a few minutes ago. They were brownish."

This led into a short discussion on whether chickens are legal in the town where we live.

I knew, a couple of years ago, they weren't allowed and I can't find anything saying they are.  But, moving on...

We walked up and down that street.  No chickens.  Didn't hear any, either.   

While we were walking, the sun came out.

It brought back memories of when spouse and I owned chickens, over 30 years ago.  It brought back memories of chicken fat.

So, how about ending this Sunday post with a song called Chickens for Christmas? 

Chickens In These Times

This post, with some edits, updates, and additions, was first posted in August, 2010.

I never realized that Iowa is the #1 egg producer in the country. 

I lived briefly in Iowa in the 1970's and have been back several times since.  When people think of Iowa, they think of (not necessarily in this order):  Pork, soybeans, corn.  In fact, if you ask my son (who has been to Iowa several times) what he remembers of Iowa, he remembers  miles and miles of boring cornfields.  I don't think I saw many chicken houses there.

When I think of Iowa, I also think of local food, of heritage breeds, of farmers who still care.  Iowa does have at least one heritage breed poultry breeder, who we bought from several times when we lived in Arkansas:  the incomparable Murray McMurray Hatchery.

Visit Murray McMurray's website today, though and you will find a COVID-19 information page.

Iowa also has wonderful, friendly people and a wonderful place we have never been to-the headquarters of the Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa and its Heritage Farm.  

Sadly, Seed Savers has had to suspend shipping for now, due to the huge demand for seed.

It's also sad that Iowa, right now, is in the news for something totally different-COVID-19 and meat processing plants (in addition to those in several other states).   I would like to share some memories of when Iowa farming goes right.

I have fond memories of visiting the Iowa City Farmers Market.  Iowa City is a college town so, as you could expect, they had their share of organic booths.  Of course, everything was locally grown and made.  But now, in case you are wondering, their farmers market is delayed until at least July 4.

Yes, in Iowa the small farmer still exists, marketing the most delicious pork and beef (sorry, vegetarian readers), plus all the usual veggies.  In a climate hotter than ours in the northeast, one even saw okra and some other southern favorites for sale.

But I promised to speak about mail order chicken memories. Since some who have never raised chickens are interested in that now, I want to share something about raising chickens and "growing" our own eggs, all from Iowa chickens.

Back in the 1980's, when we lived in rural Arkansas and kept chickens, we would spend the New Year perusing the Murray McMurray catalog, with its brightly colored pictures of what was even then called "rare" chickens.  These are the chickens with names, not numbers:  Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, Black Australorps, Buff Orpingtons, New Hampshire...and on and one-about 130 breeds total.

We would make our selection and place our order (in the mail, of course).  No internet, no fascinating website giving pictures of their operations, no instant update of stock on hand.  Rather, we placed our order and waited for the day we specified.  We did it the "old fashioned" way which, in those days, was the only way.

On the appointed day, there would be a phone call from our local rural post office.  We had to come and get them; they would not deliver.  The box, cheeping away, was rushed home.  In a miracle that we could never get tired of, the living chicks survived the trip.  Just imagine opening a box and being greeted by 25 cheeping 2 day old chicks!  We would take each one out gently, dip its beak in water, and put each precious chick in a little pen under a warm light.  The waterer and feeder were made from mason jars screwed into special "lips".  We fed them commercial but unmedicated chick starter.  After a day or so, they would be ready for supplementation with the occasional June Bug attracted by the light.

This next part is not for the squeamish.  The chicks would get hold of the unfortunate bug and chase each other, trying to snatch what was left of the large bug (it didn't last very long) in a game of chick free-for-all.  The whole while, they would be screaming in delight.

Don't ever say baby chicks are cute.  Not unless you've seen one of those feedings.

You have to love chickens to know them. You have to accept their nature.  Chickens are omnivores, and they lust for blood.  If one of those chicks accidentally got cut, it would have suffered the same fate as that bug.

Then, those chicks would grow, and about six months later the female (pullets) would start to lay their small beginner eggs.  The males?  Well, that part isn't for the squeamish either.  (I'll leave the part out about how roosters treat the hens.)  Nothing like a wonderful, thick shelled, fresh egg.  Except if you want to hard boil, in which case you want a slightly aged egg.

We never worried about salmonella.  We ate raw (from scratch) cake batter.  We even made (gasp!) real eggnog!

We moved back to urban life in the mid 1980's, and our chicken life was over. 

If you attempt to raise chickens, one thing you will learn quickly is that it's hard work.  And one more point is necessary:  unless you get pre-sexed chickens, you will have males and females.  If all you want is females for eggs:  what are you going to do with the males?

Just realize you may be entering territory you may not have considered.


You'll quickly appreciate your local farmer.  In these times more than ever:

Support your local farmer.  Know who produces your food.  Know HOW it is produced. Ask questions. Ask lots of questions, including how the animal is - to use a euphemism - harvested.

That harvesting and processing is hard work, too, and it's a national scandal that the workers in the large commercial plants put their lives at risk so that we can eat meat. So:  how is the animal harvested? Is it done by the farmer?  Is it done humanely? Is it done by a local operation that is treating its employees well?

Because, in this day and age, treating their employees well can make the difference between life and death.  And how you support your local farmer can make the difference between their operations surviving this time, or not.

Just one more detail of life in the time of COVID-19.

Victory Vegetatively

I don't even remember how I got on the topic, but my cousin in New York City brightened up when I started talking about windowsill gardens.  Apparently, this has become a "thing" during our stay at home orders.

Do you remember taking sprouting potatoes as a child and putting them in water, so you could see the shoots grow?  Wasn't that fun?  It was for me.  I did it, on my 4th floor New York City apartment windowsills, with both white potatoes and sweet potatoes.  Of course, then you need a place to plant them.

As a child, I also used to do things like sprouting apple and orange seeds from fruit I ate, but I never did get a tree out of it.  But, now, in my senior years, I am talking to my cousin about growing carrots from carrot tops (yes, you can do that) and taking scallions (what we call green onions in New York City), saving the root and a couple of inches of the white part above the roots, putting them in a glass with a little water, and regrowing the green shoots.

Or, you can go even further.  My spouse and I have been successful in sprouting ginger root and getting a harvest of roots. 

We are not alone.  It would seem that millions of people have decided to grow Victory Gardens this year.  Maybe it's the spirit of World Wars I and II.  Maybe it reflects fear of food shortages.  Maybe it's the joy that comes from watching something grow.

There's nothing like a garden, even in the best of times.  

Seeds are suddenly hard to get.  Yesterday, spouse and I took a trip about 20 minutes from our house.  It's the furthest we've been from home since around March 14.  The highlight of our day?  Going to a country store that recently reopened for the season and seeing a rack of seeds there.  Victory.  We had already mail ordered seeds before the pandemic started, but hadn't gotten everything we need for our community garden.

And then there are the people who are trying to raise chickens, because it's suddenly become hard (at least around here) to get chicken meat.  As it happens, I've been there and done that in the country - about 30 some years ago. Am I thinking of doing it again, this time in my urban home?  Not really but you never know where life will lead you.  For one thing, years ago, we community gardened in what was once a Potter's Field.

Meanwhile, we count our Victories, small and large, not just the Vegetable type.


The hospital triage tents shown in my March post were taken down yesterday.  My relative who was hospitalized with the Virus on April 7 has made large strides towards recovery in the past three days.   I hate to celebrate his recovery because of the 51,000 plus people whose families have nothing to celebrate - and few ways to mourn.

But we celebrate what we can.

And eventually, we hope for Victory over coVid-19.  It will be a beautiful thing.

"V" day on the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.  My topic:  America the Beautiful.

Civil War Sunday - Gardening During the Civil War

Studying the United States Civil War isn't just learning about battles.  For me, some of my interest is in the way people used to live in the time period of the war, 1861-1865.

As someone who loves to grow things, married 40 years to a devoted gardener, I've often wondered how people gardened during the Civil War.

For many of us in the modern United States, gardening is not a matter of life and death.  There are stores, there are farmers market, if we run out of food.

For many people in the United States during the war, gardening was a subsistence activity.

The home garden fed the family, and animals.  It provided both food and medicine, through medicinal herbs, and dyes for homespun wool.

Farmer's Museum, Cooperstown, NY

This may have been one example of a mid 19th century garden, perhaps not exactly from the Civil War era.  But you can see sunflowers, amaranth, and corn, among other plants.

Pumpkin Patch, Farmer's Museum

Pumpkins were also grown in the Civil War era garden, along with beets, onions, tomatoes, beans, cabbage and potatoes.  Food from the garden and available livestock was supplemented by hunting.


Especially in the Confederacy, as the war continued and food became both scarce and expensive, growing your own food became more and more a necessity.

I suspect this is a chicken breed that existed at the time of the war

You may have seen a rooster like this one, roaming free.

Next week, I will return to the war itself, possibly blogging about a battle in Kansas - another in my series about the "neglected West" of the Civil War.

Sustainable Saturday - Urban Eggs?

This, with some edits, was first posted August 24, 2010. I am preparing for a month long blog challenge, during which I am going to explore the possibility of trying to blog a book, or, at least, part of a book - a book about having a brother in law with a developmental disability called autism.

I may (or may not) keep my Sustainable Saturday feature for the entire month - and I will not have a Civil War Sunday post this Sunday, or possibly for the rest of the month.

Today-urban eggs.  Tomorrow - please join me for my blogging experiment.  I might even throw in a chicken or two.

Urban Eggs....

No, these ladies aren't urban - and we don't have snow on the ground.

Grow your own eggs in the city!  No, you aren't going to plant them in your garden.  Rather, you will have to keep chickens. (Or ducks - but that's a story for another time).

Urban chicken farming?  What?  Who, me? Well, it is a time honored tradition.  You would be surprised to know which cities allow its citizens to keep chickens. 

Isn't it illegal?  Well, that depends on where you live.  Near to where I live, the city of Binghamton, New York does permit the keeping of chickens.   If it is illegal, don't try it at home. But do consider lobbying for having the law changed. Various communities have changed their laws in recent years.  Be sure to do your research so you don't learn "the hard way" that you can't.

Again, this isn't a political blog so I will keep to my area of expertise - I do love chickens, and I used to keep them. But be aware:  it is work!  (but maybe no more than owning a couple of dogs.)

We haven't tried urban chicken farming.  Yet. I'm not even sure my town (the town of Union) allows it.

I'm not going to give you a lot of advice, having only raised and kept chickens in rural settings.  Instead, if you are lucky and your local laws allow, here are some tips from my store of experience:

1. Stick to the ladies.  You probably will have to, anyway, as urban laws generally ban roosters (for very good reasons).  But chickens will lay eggs quite happily without a rooster.  I doubt they miss the males anyway.  You won't miss roosters either.  They can be very aggressive and they have spurs on their legs. (Ouch!) They don't crow once at dawn and shut up for the day, like I thought while I was growing up in New York City.  Oh no.  It's more like every few minutes and they only stop at night.  They will wear your ladies out. Again, stick to the ladies unless you want to eat chicken, also.

2.  Socialize your ladies.  If you get the chicks young, spend time with them.  Handle them.  They do make good pets, if you don't mind pets who can dig up your garden in seconds flat.  Fence well.  They can fly, especially the smaller breeds and your neighbors won't want chickens in their flowers any more than they want your cats in their flowers. 

3. Get the right breed for your needs.  Decide if you want the chickens for both meat and eggs or just meat, or just eggs.  If you want meat well...is there a place or person who will do the deed or will you have to?  Are you up to it?  It's not pretty.  But some will say you should do this from beginning to end.  Be sure to choose a breed with a name.  Some "all purpose" breeds will give both good meat and nice, brown eggs.

You won't be able to do the mail order of my Thursday post, as you have to get 25 at a time (to keep each other warm).  If you are lucky you have access to a farm store.  Otherwise, you will have to find some friends and split an order.  

4.  But if you do eat your chickens be aware these are not your supermarket chickens.  They will have lots of flavor-and lots of toughness.  There are some very nice recipes out there for "free range" chickens and there is a reason for those recipes. They make wonderful soup, by the way.  Wonderful, golden, tasty true chicken soup. They say it is great for colds.  My son sure swears by chicken soup for colds.

5.  But back to eggs....one thing you also need to be aware of is that egg production is photo sensitive.  In other words, if you want eggs in the winter you are (unless you live in a place like Florida) going to have to put lights on them to artifically extend their day.  If you don't, you aren't going to get many eggs.  Be sure you make provision for that.

Feed?   If you don't have a local farm store you can mail order the food.  They will need a mix of grains, or layer pellets if you want to simplify their feeding.  Great supplements include weeds from your garden and bugs from your garden.  (Squeamish alert) we used to feed our chickens grasshoppers and weeds.  They love both.

6.  Finally, chickens....well, um, that food you feed them comes out the other end.  Don't use it on your garden without aging it, and make sure your neighbors are OK with it.  Otherwise, dispose of in an "organic" manner.  I guarantee it if you offer the used bedding for free you will have some very eager gardeners ready to haul it away for you.  (maybe you could sell them some eggs, too.....)  Be considerate of your neighbors, always.  If you tick them off you aren't going to be successful - period.

Good luck! Take my advice for what it is worth-I hope it is worth something to you.  Maybe one day we will take the urban plunge-although I don't think so. We want to travel too much!

Have you ever kept urban chickens?

My Blogaversary and the Chickens

Today marks the 2nd anniversary of my daily blogging streak.  Yes, starting with my post of April 29, 2011 I have blogged daily. Through thick, through thin, even through the aftermath of a flood (thanks to us having been on vacation, and our neighborhood never losing power).  Will I go for Year 3?  I don't quite know.  I don't know how much of an achievement daily blogging is - perhaps it is more an indicator of how crazy I am.


After all, I have a memoir to write.  I made my 10,000. word goal on my Chicken Memoir for the April session of Camp NaNoWriMo (10,300 words to be exact) and just might sign on again for July.

It's been quite an experience starting to write a memoir of growing up in New York City and then totally changing my life around by moving to rural Arkansas and living on 34 acres.  I've found I'm far from the only person who has written about experiences with chickens - which I owned and loved -hence, my "chicken memoir".

I have been away from chickens for almost 30 years, and times have changed tremendously.  Thanks to the site Mental Floss, I found out today just how out of touch with the chicken world I am.

I knew there was such a thing as urban chickens.  I've heard chickens several times while exercise walking through the West Side of Binghamton  (a household in Binghamton, NY can own up to four chickens.) I don't live in Binghamton, and I don't know if chickens are legal in my town of Union.  But more and more, cities are legalizing chickens - at least, hens.

There are chicken blogs, chicken message boards, and now - chicken motels.

Yes.  You see, urban chicken owners aren't necessarily into livestock for earning a living, unlike farmers, who need to schedule their lives around their animals and their crop cycles.  Some animals need a lot of care - for example, dairy animals   need to be milked every 12 hours. Chickens need to be cared for daily.  Eggs need to be collected. City people want chickens but also still want to vacation.  So what happens to the chickens when it is vacation time?


When my spouse and I lived in rural Arkansas, we were able to take short vacations only because one of our two neighbors would look in after our chickens, ducks and geese.  They would feed them, collect eggs (which they kept, of course) and lock them up at night.  We did things for them if they had to be away.  That's how things work in the country.

But if you are an urban chicken keeper, your neighbor might not be interested in sitting your chickens.  Hence, chicken boarding.

I am intrigued by the idea, although I can quickly see some downsides. But, it does make sense to offer a service for which there is a demand.

A retirement career for my spouse and me? My spouse, quite honestly, has missed chickens in his lie more than I have.  I don't think I'm ready to restart my life with chickens.  At least, right now.

But it would be nice to think there might be chickens in our lives again, one day.

But, first, I must ask.  If you run a chicken motel, what would be your chicken turn down service?

Fame and Fortune Will Have to Wait

One week left to Camp NaNoWriMo.  One week left to write my chicken memoir, the vehicle by which I will achieve fame, fortune, and the adoration of millions.

No, thousands.  No, hundreds.  Well, maybe twenty people, including my spouse, my childhood friend in Brooklyn, a couple of people at work and, if I'm lucky, my sister-in-law. (My sister in law even traveled to Arkansas, back in my chicken days, to visit my spouse and me.  Now, that's a sister-in-law!)

Some people had their salad days.  I had my chicken days.  And, my salad days, too, but I digress.

I was idealistic once.  And then, life beat it out of me.  Not totally, because I still believe in the sustainable lifestyle.  But trying not to freeze in a leaky cabin in Northwest Arkansas  heated by a wood stove made from a 55 gallon drum during a Blue Norther, is not my idea of sustainable living.  It shouldn't be yours, either.

What I would really like to do is write a funny memoir, but then I don't know how I would deal with the sad stuff.  There was some sad stuff.  Sad stuff comes to us all.

So, right now, because Camp NaNoWriMo (like the official NaNoWriMo 50,000 word novel in 30 days competition in November) is about nonstop writing with no editing, I have 6,985 words worth of "I did this, I did that, and,if you are interested, here's how to raise chickens and definitely how NOT to build a leaky cabin."  If you want to read about potsy and Spauldeen balls, and Black Austrolorp chickens, this will be your book.  If I keep up the memoir writing after Camp is over, that is.

Now, all I need to do is follow through.

Have you ever written your memoir?

Laying a Chicken Memoir

 I am supposed to be attending Camp NaNoWriMo (short for "National Novel Writing Month") in April.  My goal was to write 10,000 words of my memoir.  No pressure.  A nice virtual camp.

A funny thing happened on the way to the memoir.  I got diverted by my chickens, and I haven't even owned any in almost 30 years.

I had a working title (created only after a bunch of agonizing) called "Life Among the Chickens". 

My working discription was"A woman who grew up in the urban New York City of the 1950s and 1960's finds herself homesteading in rural Arkansas in the early 1980's, learning along the way about chickens, outhouses and what really matters in life."

Well, this is all true (I did grow up in New York City, I did find myself homesteading in Arkansas in the early 1980's and it was certainly an interesting experience) but what I keep asking myself is:

What about my life would people really care about?  In other words, what makes my life so special?  It's nice to think we are all special in our own ways, but that doesn't produce a great story.  I'm not thinking "best seller" here but "why does my life have meaning?"

I really don't know right now.  And then I made things worse for myself.  I somehow lost about half my manuscript (I thought I had backed it up by emailing it to myself, but apparently not) so my true word count is about half of what appears on NaNoWriMo.  Shame on me.

Next (can you see the excuses piling up?) I've been sick the last two days.  During the worse of it, I was on the couch (while a plumber was working on our plumbing, in the middle of me having a stomach virus) watching You Tube videos of elevated subways running through my neighborhood.

No wait.  It was a fascinating experience. At least it was for the twilight zone of being sick.  Those chickens seemed far, far away...about 1400 miles worth of far away.

Finally, I discovered that "chicken memoirs"seem to be "in" right now.  A quick look online found these memoirs, and I froze because if this is what it takes to be published, I'm doomed.  The chicken memoir has been done.  And done.  And done.  Just four examples:

1.  "Still Life with Chickens:  Starting Over in a House by the Sea" by Catherine Goldhammer

Problem:  no sea anywhere near Arkansas.

2.  "Chicken and Egg:  A Memoir of Suburban Homesteading with 125 Recipes" by Janice Cole.


Problem: My idea of cooking is popping a Healthy Choice frozen meal into the microwave.  Don't think there are too many recipes for frozen dinners.

3.  "Barnheart The Incurable Longing for a Farm of One's Own" by Jenna Woginrich.

Well, this one is sort-of me, which brings up the question:  do I have anything new to share? Well, there was the hissy-fit I threw when the Springdale, Arkansas library wouldn't issue me a library card in my own name but that in itself does not a memoir make.  And, my experience in Arkansas cured me of farming, or whatever it was that I was doing out there.

4.  And finally, "Once Upon a Flock" - Life with My Soulful Chickens" by Lauren Scheuer.
The Boomer Muse blog said of the Soulful Chickens book:

"The happiest book I've read lately happens to be one of the top 10 most anticipated memoirs of 2013 by Publishers Weekly and it's about chickens. Yes, but you won't see any chickens baked, broiled or stir fried in Once Upon a Flock: Life With My Soulful Chicken by illustrator Lauren Scheuer."

Good grief, one of the top 10 most anticipated memoirs of 2013!

In other words, the market is being flooded with chicken memoirs!  Who would have thought....

So, I can do one of two things:  either write to please myself OR, change the emphasis and keep plowing forward.  But either way, I do have to get back to the memoir.  I just can't chicken out.

What is your best excuse for not writing?

Urban Chickens? Cock A Doodle Doo Yes!

On Saturday, my spouse and I were walking in Binghamton, an upstate New York city of about 47,000. residents, when we heard....

a crow.  A rooster crowing?

We heard it again. No doubt about it.  Years ago, we owned our own chickens, which we raised for eggs, for meat, and for entertainment.  We are quite familiar with crowing.

We walked by the house we thought the crowing was coming from and didn't see any easily visible evidence of chickens.

But chickens are in Binghamton, and they are legal.  As they are in a number of cities all over the United States, including some that may surprise you (New York City, for example).  Generally, ordinances permitting chickens will
a.  allow a maximum of 3 or 4 chickens per family;
b.  allow hens only, not roosters;
c.  require the chickens be confined to a yard or coop;
d. may or may not allow slaughter on the home premises; and
e.  many times will require a permit that you must pay for.

Are you interested in the nitty gritty of raising chickens? My experience is rural and not urban.  I've distilled some of my general knowledge which I am happy to share with you. 

Of course, I can't give advice on issues of how to build a coop in a city, or fence your feathered friends in.

As for that rooster in Binghamton....its legality may be somewhat questionable.  It seems the Binghamton ordinance doesn't outright prohibit them but does discuss the noise issue.

Our local paper (still mad at them, see my post of earlier this week) featured an article on urban chickens in today's issue. You'll enjoy the video interview on the website - made me a little bit nostalgic.  By the way, the featured people on "Margaret Street" are NOT where we heard the rooster crow.

Would we keep chickens today?  Probably not, as we are enjoying our empty nest too much to have to worry about chicken sitting when we are gone.  But maybe one day.....if we talk that talk of local food, we should walk that walk, too?

Do you keep urban chickens?  If not, have you thought about keeping some?

Urban Eggs

Grow your own eggs!

Urban chicken farming.  What?  Who, me? Well, it is a time honored tradition.  You would be surprised to know the cities that allow keeping of chickens.  I'd love to know your experiences - please feel welcome to post.

Isn't it illegal?  Well, that depends on where you live.  If it is illegal, don't try it at home. But do lobby for having the law changed. Various communities have changed their laws in recent years.  After this "egg scandal" I bet more will.  Be sure to do your research so you don't learn "the hard way".

Again, this isn't a political blog so I will keep to my area of expertise - I do love chickens, and I used to keep them. But be aware:  it is work!  (but maybe no more than owning a couple of dogs.)

We haven't tried urban chicken farming.  Yet.  But the latest scare, the famous Iowa egg scare, may have a lot of people thinking about trying it.

I'm not going to give you a lot of advice, having only raised and kept chickens in rural settings.  Instead, if you are lucky and your local laws allow, here are some tips from my store of experience:

1. Stick to the ladies.  You probably will have to, anyway, as urban laws generally ban roosters (for very good reasons).  But chickens will lay eggs quite happily without a rooster.  I doubt they miss the males anyway.  You won't miss roosters either.  They can be very aggressive and they have spurs on their legs. (Ouch!) They don't crow once at dawn and shut up for the day.  Oh no.  It's more like every few minutes and they only stop at night.  They will wear your ladies out. Again, stick to the ladies unless you want to eat chicken, also.

2.  Socialize your ladies.  If you get the chicks young, spend time with them.  Handle them.  They do make good pets, if you don't mind pets who can dig up your garden in seconds flat.  Fence well.  They can fly, especially the smaller breeds and your neighbors won't want chickens in their flowers any more than they want your cats in their flowers. 

3. Get the right breed for your needs.  Decide if you want the chickens for both meat and eggs or just meat, or just eggs.  If you want meat well...is there a place or person who will do the deed or will you have to?  Are you up to it?  It's not pretty.  But some will say you should do this from beginning to end.  Be sure to choose a breed with a name.  Some "all purpose" breeds will give both good meat and nice, brown eggs.

You won't be able to do the mail order of my last post, as you have to get 25 at a time (to keep each other warm).  If you are lucky you have access to a farm store.  Otherwise, you will have to find some friends and split an order.  

4.  But if you do eat your chickens be aware these are not your supermarket chickens.  They will have lots of flavor-and lots of toughness.  There are some very nice recipes out there for "free range" chickens and there is a reason for those recipes. They make wonderful soup, by the way.  Wonderful, golden, tasty true chicken soup. They say it is great for colds.  My son sure swears by chicken soup for colds.

5.  But back to eggs....one thing you also need to be aware of is that egg production is photo sensitive.  In other words, if you want eggs in the winter you are (unless you live in a place like Florida) going to have to put lights on them to artifically extend their day.  If you don't, you aren't going to get many eggs.  Be sure you make provision for that.

Feed?   If you don't have a local farm store you can mail order the food.  They will need a mix of grains, or layer pellets if you want to simplify their feeding.  Great supplements include weeds from your garden and bugs from your garden.  (Squeamish alert) we used to feed our chickens grasshoppers and weeds.  They love both.

6.  Finally, chickens....well, um, that food you feed them comes out the other end.  Don't use it on your garden without aging it, and make sure your neighbors are OK with it.  Otherwise, dispose of in an "organic" manner.  I guarantee it if you offer the used bedding for free you will have some very eager gardeners ready to haul it away for you.  (maybe you could sell them some eggs, too.....)  Be considerate of your neighbors, always.  If you tick them off you aren't going to be successful - period.

Sorry for the ramble but I just couldn't resist sharing what little I know.  Good luck, and take my advice for what it is worth-I hope it is worth something to you.  Maybe one day we will take the urban plunge-although I don't think so, we want to travel too much!