Urban Chicken Keeping and the Fear of Flu
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 04. 8.08
Back in 2005, we classified urban chicken keeping as a ‘weird eco-habit’. Maybe we shouldn’t have been so hasty – it seems that the trend is catching on all over the place. Only yesterday we brought news of the expanding range from Omlet, the makers of the “iPod of hen houses”, and last week we heard about a chicken keeping cooperative in Portland, Oregon. But how will the fear of bird flu impact this movement? This short report on YouTube (original source unknown), looks at the growth in chicken keeping in London, and discusses the problem of keeping track of informal, small-scale flock owners. It seems like most keepers are relatively sanguine about the threat, as long as proper hygiene precautions are followed. Their neighbors are sometimes less understanding...
::YouTube::via site visit::
Yep, even my boss who 'doesn't believe' in global warming, has an egloo and two young female chickens :D
Backyard or free-range chickens are not where Bird Flu comes from - it's Factory farming.
http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=194
"When it comes to bird flu, diverse small-scale poultry farming is the solution, not the problem."
Broken link for "iPod of hen houses". Should include ".php" at the end of the url