More Suburbanites, Hobbyists Raise Chickens

This April 9, 2009 photo shows manager Melissa Walters sorting through some of the 1,200 chicks sold...

This April 9, 2009 photo shows manager Melissa Walters sorting through some of the 1,200 chicks sold from Clearview Feed & Seed in Union, Mo. The chicks were pre-ordered by farmers, chicken enthusiasts and suburbanites looking for fresher meat, eggs and even for companion pets. (AP Photo/Jerry Naunheim Jr.)

(AP)

A sport utility vehicle loaded with 1,200 baby chicks in cardboard boxes pulls up to the Clearview Feed and Seed store, where customers come to pick up their peeping, cheeping poultry orders on a recent spring day.

Poultry dealers, chicken feed businesses and self-proclaimed "chicken enthusiasts" nationwide report city slickers and suburbanites are showing greater interest in raising small flocks of chickens far from the farm.

Store workers whisk boxes from the vehicle — where the heat is cranked up to keep the chicks warm — and gently sort the downy birds born at a hatchery into smaller containers. Temporary color-coded dots on the chicks' heads help employees divvy up individual orders.

Mostly farm families wait to pick up the chicks, but mixed in with the veterans are first-timers like Justin and Stacey DeWeese, both 25. They collect a box of 30 chicks they plan to raise in suburban St. Louis.

Motivated by the taste of farm-fresh eggs and a desire to try something new, the couple built a coop at a friend's house and researched how to care for a flock. Stacey said the couple wants chickens "for the eggs, to watch them play in the backyard."

And to "kill the bugs," Justin added.

Clearview's manager Karen Ruck said about every 10th person who calls to inquire about ordering chicks says they've never raised chickens before. She hears from suburban moms who want a few hens to teach their kids responsibility, and new gardeners seeking birds to go with their attempts to grow backyard vegetables.

Livestock feed and pet food maker Purina Mills is seeing double-digit growth for its small, 5-pound bags of all-natural poultry feed marketed since 2003 to people who raise small flocks for eggs or as companion animals.

Backyard Chickens, a Web site that began to help city residents raise chickens, says its community of about 27,000 people is growing rapidly, with about 100 new members daily.

The Web site's owner, Rob Ludlow of Pleasant Hill, Calif., attributes the increased interest in raising suburban chickens to three factors: their relative ease of care as pets; increased interest in getting food from humane, local sources; and a desire by some to produce their own food in tough economic times.