For several weeks I’ve been teasing Toby saying I want to get some chickens. After all, we live in “the sticks” as I never let him forget … time to start assimilating. He has adamantly refused, which makes me giggle because I enjoy pushing his buttons. It’s only fair since he does it to me constantly.

The real reason I half wanted chickens wasn’t to fit it – I wanted them for free, non-disease ridden, non hormone laced eggs. Basically, eggs that don’t come from four de-beaked chickens living in a 2’x2′ cage. This is wear Toby usually says “Enough with your vegetarian propaganda!” so I’ll stop there.

Then Sunday we were eating our eggs at breakfast and Toby said “I think you should get some chickens.”

I almost fell off my chair.

Since then I’ve been looking into the backyard chicken thing. I had to re-read our HOA bylaws, call our city’s zoning department (consisting of one nice lady) and do a little reading on what it takes to raise egg-layers. The long and short of it is that it’s do-able…both in terms of municipal regulations and my low threshold for squeamishness.

But one thing is holding me back. I feel like I would have to keep the chickens totally and completely hidden from friends and neighbors. Otherwise, people are going to make all kinds of assumptions about me. After all, if I raise my food in my back yard I probably carry Skoal in my purse, marry my cousins, give birth to litters of sticky children born with Kool-aid mustaches already in place, have ducks in the bathtub and…the list goes on.

Until recently these would have been my assumptions of anyone who told me they had a chicken coop.

On the other hand, I keep looking at chicken websites. Oh yes, there are many websites dedicated to the backyard chicken farmer. I’m starting to develop a preference for certain breeds and what kind of coop I want…

Am I crazy?

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