Chicken or Egg? (Mac)

Last night we took our first step towards raising chickens.  I contacted Calgary's pioneer urban chicken farmer, Paul Hughes, to see if he would entertain my request to bring my family to see what he is doing and how he is doing it - Paul gladly agreed to have us over.

Paul has six chickens running around freely in his backyard and I was quite surprised how benign they are - almost invisible.  These six chickens were far more innocuous than many neighborhood dogs with their incessant barking and feces littering the ground that their owners refuse to pick up.  I was also surprised at how simple they are to maintain.  Paul says a few minutes a day making sure they have water and feed and a little bit of time on the weekend sweeping out the coop and that's about it - I can handle that.  For his efforts Paul is rewarded with three eggs every day - his other three are too young to lay as of yet.

Our next step will be consulting with our town to see what, if any, rules there are about chickens.  I looked online and couldn't find anything so I will make a call to see if I can dig up some more info.  I hope our town is amiable to the idea of raising chickens and if not I fully intend on fighting for my right to grow my own food. Safeway, Sobey's and Superstore do not need to dictate where my food comes from and I shouldn't be forced to use them when I can responsibly and sustainable grow my own possibly with surplus for friends and neighbors...kinda like it used to be a mere fifty years ago.

On  side note, my sausage casing finally arrived and I can begin making my own sausage to compliment the jerky I have been making for years.  Very cool :-)