The bird house

I have enclosed my entire back yard in deer netting to prevent the chickens getting out and dogs getting in. The deer netting runs through the entire length of bamboo on one side of the house, it is attached to trellises which act as a back drop for the garden in the back and through trees on the other side of the house. It is barely visible.

The chickens live in a 4'x4' house which I built from a child's playhouse kit and it is painted to match my house. It has a window box, shutters and awnings and is incorporated into the yard, but sits on the opposite side of the complaining neighbor. Attached to the house is a 6'x12'x2.5' (high) screened in porch/yard with white trim and gingerbread. The girls spend the day in their house or porch and I let them out after work and on weekends to roam my enclosed yard freely where they eat bugs, fertilize, frolic in dry dirt taking dust baths, but mostly follow me around because they LOVE me.

The house and porch are built to chicken specifications to keep out rodents and predators. The windows of the house are covered in 1/2" x 1/2" hardware cloth. The sides and top of the yard are covered with the same as well as traditional porch screen on the outside. The house and porch sit on the ground and have chicken wire running underneath which is very securely attached. There is also a 6" skirt of hardware cloth around the perimeter of the porch which has been landscaped so it will prevent digging while not being noticeable. As you can tell, I did extensive research.

The bird food is kept indoors to keep out pests. The chicken house is clean and does not smell. I use pruned bamboo leaves from the yard to line the house and porch floors. I compost the bamboo liter, and use it in my gardens. I layer leaves on the compost so it does not smell either. It makes WONDERFUL soil and feels like such a great use of resources. I am an ornamental gardener. I grow flowers, a few herbs and 5 tomato plants. I have ornamental chickens which complement my garden.

My Garden

When my children were little girls they used to call the yard the "yarden". I have spent most of my adult life gardening in my free time. I lived and worked on a large nursery in CT for several years. http://www.ctgrown.com/index.cfm I was in the landscaping business upon moving back to Sewanee.

When I moved into my house about 13 years ago most of the back yard was covered in underbrush. There was a little overgrown rock garden in the back covered in privet that we used to call the "Secret Garden". No one (including the former owner) thought that grass could grow in the front yard. My awkward shaped, narrow, just under an acre yard has been reclaimed for years now, but like any gardener knows, it is always growing, evolving and changing.

All the gravel, mulch, rocks, soil and plants were placed where they are by me. Until 2 years ago when I got tendinitis, I had an annual dump truck of mulch delivered. It had to be dumped in front of my carport because the truck couldn't get through to the back yard. Over the course of several weeks I would wheelbarrow it to all the flowerbeds in the yard. I don't know why, but I enjoy this.

I've always grown flowers. I dabble at vegetables, but haven't had much success. Luckily many of my friends have beautiful vegetable gardens and are very generous. My garden is ornamental, not practical. It's a lovely place to have dinner parties on summer nights.

Research on the University's sustainability goals

The more people I talked to, the more it became clear that the University is very seriously and deliberately moving towards a more environmentally conscientious campus. I read the May 2008 draft of the strategic planning committee's addendum to the 2004 Strategic Plan on "Environmental Education and Sustainable Living".

I learned that among many admirable goals "the University shall be a place of reasoned discourse among academic disciplines and between academia and the wider community." - I'M part of the wider community! I'm very reasonable. I want to help!

Also of note to me, "we should launch a bold sustainability campaign based on the Plan. It is important to get broad support from all stakeholders: students, faculty, staff, administrators, Regents, Trustees, and the larger Sewanee community. We should raise awareness and establish an ethos of sustainability that is immediately palpable to all who come to Sewanee. We should motivate our campus and community through education, communication, promotion, and collaboration. " I love Sewanee. I love the University. This is something I believe in and want to be a part of!!

While I realize that these are proposals and recommendations rather than final plans, number 2 of the following was of particular interest:

"RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Provide students with classes and internships that use food production as a means to rigorously explore the relationship between people and the environment.
2. Facilitate local sustainable food production by leaseholders by a) continuing and adding new community gardens; b) lifting the current blanket ban of livestock on the Domain.
3. Extend campus dining services? commitment to local and organic foods.
4. End the throwaway culture for catered events.
5. Change the name of the new ECO House to GreenHouse to suggest a new focus on sustainable food production by students in a nearby central campus garden.
6. Build a new FarmHouse on or near the site of the Old Dairy with a large organic garden."

I am so proud to be part of a community that is thinking this way. We are all in the business of educating people - even ourselves.

Word gets out

As I began talking to friends about my plight, I was truly astonished and very touched at how outraged they were. Because it's so clear that Antoinette, Elisa and Chloe are pets and very dear and important to me, they couldn't understand the reasoning. (The birds also live in a very beautiful garden setting.) I understand - and explained that if you hear someone has chickens, you think muddy, messy, smelly, farmy.

Naturally, in these times, the other issue is that of sustainability. As word spread, more and more people expressed exasperation and the desire to help me. There was talk of joining the 4th of July parade (the theme this year is red, white and green), picketing, silent protests, t shirts, mean things I won't mention, attending the lease committee meeting in mass - it seemed everyone wanted to write a letter.

I called a couple of University people for advice and to see if anyone would come look at my lovely yard to understand how my pets live. I re-asked my closest neighbor if my chickens bothered him. No, he doesn't even hear them.

I put together an email list of people who expressed interest, those I thought would, and neighbors, and sent out a message asking for advice.

A neighbor excitedly flagged me down saying, "I want to see your pets!" He had no idea I had them and expressed no reservations or concern - only appreciation for my gardens.

And still I thought, "How am I going to get rid of these chickens? Maybe I could get rid of Elisa and just keep Chloe and Antoinette..." Each evening in the garden was a melancholy and thought provoking time.

My special breeds

I began talking to friends about having to get rid of "the girls". It turns out that you can't mix crested ornamentals in with regular chickens. Other birds will pluck at their crests and harm them. My birds are small also, and can not be mixed with average size chickens. They have been hand raised and treated as pets so it's not unlikely that they would not survive in a farm setting. While my birds do lay eggs which I gladly eat, the breeds are not raised for their eggs and meat so they're a hard sell to anyone who wants them for anything but pets.

Antoinette, who I've had for the longest, is a Frizzle. http://www.thefrizzlesocietyofgreatbritain.co.uk/index.php. She is all black and has a crest (feathers that stand up on her head). A frizzle's feathers start growing normally and then bend up and back making her look like a boa. I named her shortly after seeing the movie Marie Antoinette because she is VERY fancy and clearly the queen. She LOVES me. She makes a gentle, soulful moaning sound - nothing like you'd imagine would come from a chicken. If I were going to rename her, I'd look towards Billy Holiday as an influence.

Antoinette goes broody about every 3 weeks in warm months. That means she spends 21 days in her house sitting on a "nest" and trying to hatch imaginary eggs. Imaginary, because she doesn't lay while she's broody and I collect any eggs she lays prior to it. If she were to sit on actual eggs, they wouldn't hatch because there is no rooster fertilizing them.

Chloe is a Bearded Buff Laced Polish. http://www.backyardpoultrymag.com/issues/2/2-2/Terry_Beebe.hml She's only about 10 weeks old. I bought her and her 2 "sisters" when they were 3 weeks old and had to keep them indoors under a light for several weeks because a Polish chicken is the ULTIMATE ornamental in my book and it was worth the effort! I believe her "sisters" are roosters, although they have not crowed yet, and they now belong to the only other person I know who raises pet chickens. They are visiting until improvements are made to their home. It is very difficult to sex chicks so it's hard to know what you'll get. It was certainly worth raising 3 to get one hen. They are too young to utter more than gentle "peeps".

Chloe is yellowish/tanish and will have a very large crest on her head. I affectionately refer to her as my "dumb blond" because it's hard for her to see so she's rather skittish and often goes in the opposite direction of the others. I trimmed her "hair" yesterday, so that has helped. I took her name from Greek Mythology. She was so sweet and loving and always fell asleep on me as soon as I picked her up when she was new. Chloe means "green shoot" in Greek and it just seemed to suit her.

Elisa is a Blue Bantam Cochin. She is short & stocky and has furry feet. She lays little eggs. She's fussier than the other two, waddling around like you'd image a busy body hen in a cartoon. She cracks me up. She cackles a bit, but again, only one neighbor has told me they've heard her and she's much more quiet than a dog. She also purrs - seriously, like a happy cat. None of the chickens make any noise at night. My daughter Lauren named Elisa - she's her favorite.

Facts about livestock

In researching my lease, I found only that I am not permitted to have livestock. It takes one glance at my back yard to know that I have no livestock.

It turns out that "livestock" is a rather ambiguous term - although not according to the TN dept of Agriculture:

Merriam Webster - "animals kept or raised for use or pleasure; especially: farm animals kept for use and profit" http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/livestock
Encyclopedia Britannica - "farm animals, with the exception of poultry. " http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/344757/livestock#tab=active~checked%2Citems~checked&title=livestock%20--%20Britannica%20Online%20Encyclopedia
Your Dictionary.com - "domestic animals kept for use on a farm and raised for profit" http://www.yourdictionary.com/livestock
Dictionary by Farlex - "Domestic animals, such as cattle or horses, raised for home use or for profit, especially on a farm." http://www.thefreedictionary.com/livestock
Wikipedia - "term used to refer (singularly or plurally) to a domesticated animal intentionally reared in an agricultral setting to make produce such as food or fibre, or for it's labour. The term generally does not include poultry or farmed fish." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livestock
American Livestock Breeds Conservancy - distinguishes between "livestock breeds" and "poultry breeds". http://www.albc-usa.org/cpl/wtchlist.html
TN Department of Agriculture - "Livestock is defined as cattle, equine, swine, sheep, or goats". http://www.tennessee.gov/agriculture/regulate/animals/faq.html

The beginning of it all.....

Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - I received a call from the University Lease Superintendent asking if I had chickens, telling me a neighbor had complained and that I needed to remove them as soon as possible. I responded that I did not know it was against my lease, these are my pets and what I can do? I can appeal at the lease committee meeting on July 15, but must remove the chickens now.

When I checked voice mail, my message said I need to remove the chickens ASAP, "like today would be good."

I was not told who complained or what the complaint was. I was told that only one neighbor complained.

I went home, let the girls out and pondered whether I had the emotional energy to fight this battle. I love these chickens. They bring me great joy and anyone who knows me well will verify this and expound on it. We walked around the yard. I picked a couple of weeds. I just couldn't image not having them there following me, chasing grasshoppers, wiggling their fluffy bottoms and looking up at me sideways. (They have to tilt their heads sideways to look up since their eyes are on either sides of their heads).

I had no idea what to do. It's just as hard to give chickens away as a litter of kittens or puppies. People that have chickens already have them, they don't need more. You can't just put a new chicken in with other chickens - especially mine - they're small and very fancy - not at all like a typical farm chicken.

Then I started researching my lease...