Backyard-chicken stories are the latest bogus trend, media critic says
Dawn Majors photo
Media critic Jack Shafer has called out newspapers throughout the country — Bogus trend of the week: raising backyard chickens.
Shafer writes that newspapers keep reporting about an increasing number of people raising chickens in urban and suburban settings because of the economy. But many of those stories don’t quantify the trend. And even when efforts to document are made, they are suspect.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch published its own backyard chicken story — Chickens vs. property values — on March 25.
In his Press Box column on Slate.com, Shafer writes:
…as this continuing feature has taught its loyal readership, too many of the “trends” reported by the press are actually bogus trends, hyped up by a reporter or her editors to get a lame story into print.
Later:
But the closest the Washington Post comes to actually counting chickens is reporting the press run of Backyard Poultry magazine, a bimonthly: It is 100,000. The Jan. 2 USA Today, which reports a “growing number of city dwellers across the country choosing chickens as pets,” measures the hen-keeping renaissance by enumerating the size of the BackYardChickens.com community: It is 19,000 worldwide.
For more all-feather, no-bone journalism, see the May 10 Chicago Tribune Magazine, where “Chicken Chic: The Backyard Bird Is Back in Style” claims that chicken keeping is a “craze,” is “[w]ay in,” and is “a fresh fad.” The piece insists that “[m]any an ordinary citizen of many an ordinary neighborhood owns an actual chicken,” but never assigns a number to the “many.”
And later in his article:
And so it continues throughout the land. “Urban Chicken Movement Taking Roost in KC Area” (May 11, Kansas City Star) compiles chicken-raising anecdotes and regulatory issues but never puts a number to the alleged trend.
That was pretty much the outline of the story the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran in March. It surveyed cities throughout the area for their chicken restrictions, and recounted people’s experiences. The article’s only effort to count chickens:
Rob Ludlow, a California online consultant who owns the website backyardchickens.com, said more than 26,000 people have registered with the site and between 70 and 80 people join each day.
“They are the multipurpose pet,” Ludlow said. “We have a bumper sticker on our site: ‘My pet makes me breakfast.’”
The Post-Dispatch article didn’t indicate a nationwide trend or even a regional movement. The only trend reference was “…but in Chesterfield, the growing popularity of urban fowl…” That growing popularity — or at least the fear of it — spurred Chesterfield leaders earlier this year to put chickens off-limits for those who own less than 2 acres of property.
Steve Parker is the deputy managing editor for news, and oversees the Post-Dispatch's front page. STLtoday's online news editors are on his newsroom team. Parker has been at the paper since September 1980. 
Hen-keeping renaissance = henaissance?
That said, I know many of us who would like to raise chickens. All of us urban or inner-suburban dwellers. Our problems are restrictive and silly city ordinances.
……….does that mean listening to roosters every day? I’m pretty much a live and let live neighbor, but I think I would have a problem with that.
I think it’s about time we made an inroad for avian flu to thrive in our population centers. What a great idea…
For some people, chicken keeping might be a means of coping with the current fiscal crisis, while for others it may be just a fad. However, there is no need for a rooster if someone is merely intending to eat the hens’ eggs–so no worry about early morning crowing–and there is no more risk of avian flu from chickens in the backyard than from the myriad of wild birds that already fly through.
Chickens are not by themselves dirty or smelly. It is up to the chickens’ owners to care for them as they would any other pets. As few as three hens can lay enough eggs to provide a good source of protein for a small family, especially if today’s financial crunch prevents that family from buying good food in the grocery store. Chickens aren’t the answer for everyone, but it seems foolish to prevent responsible people from caring for a small flock–even within city limits–in this day and age.
Crashtest,
You will be relieved to know roosters are not necessary for egg production, just reproduction. Grocery store eggs are not fertile as the hens are kept in very small cages and never really live a normal chicken life.Most hens will produce close to five eggs a week on average, and will happily eat most leftovers and grass or bugs in addition to chicken feed.Typically roosters don’t crow at night anyway, unless there is a disturbance or predator in the roosting area.Actually, many of our neighbors are either neutral or like to hear our roosters(we have two) crow,as it reinforces the rural flavor where we are even though we more of a hobby farm area.
Suzyjax,
Have you actually checked the regs where you live? I know the city allows hens,as do many urban areas.The PD ran a story years ago about urban chickens near Tower Grove Park.Mother Earth News magazine(they have a website) has had articles on homestead chickens in the past, and I was surprised at how many cities do allow hens.Good luck-fresh eggs taste SOOO much better, and you can even get hens that lay blue or green eggs in addition to white and brown,although some of ours are almost pinkish brown.
I have a friend who just purchased five baby ducks to eat their eggs. They each lay i egg a day vs. Chickens who lay 1 egg every other day. More people are raising chickens and ducks. I rarely eat store brought eggs myself. My family and just about everyone within our circle eat only fresh eggs. Nothing can compare to the taste and health benefits and nutrients of fresh eggs and that is why I eat them, to keep away from all the hormones etc… used in store brought eggs.
“I think it’s about time we made an inroad for avian flu to thrive in our population centers. What a great idea…” - Tim
Get the facts straight, you know there are farms all over the United States with 800,000 birds in each building with some farms having 8 buildings each that you get your food supply chicken from. Then you have the person with three chickens in a coop, that when sanitation is judged is vastly superior.
Whats the bigger risk ? The 800,000 packed in like sardines or the three that roam a person’s backyard under their supervision.
Im more afraid of the Rottweiler in someones backyard escaping that my chickens spreading disease.
I live in Overland. The city ordinances says that a hen coop/house has to be at least 150 feet from any house (dwelling). I can get them that far from my house, but I live near a corner and they would still be close to the neighbors house.
I disagree with the comments contained in this article. Check out my favorite poultry website PoultryOne Community and see for yourself. I, as it happens, am a new urban poultry owner in NJ and the economy as well as the quality of our food is exactly the reason that I have added chickens to my family of pets. Thank you - Dianne Pearce
@ LoupGarou: You wrote: “and there is no more risk of avian flu from chickens in the backyard than from the myriad of wild birds that already fly through.”
Really? I find that a rather ignorant statement. I know of no bird flu cases in the world that came from a wild bird. People handling and being around poultry, ducks, etc that were raised by humans are the main culprit behind transmission from birds to people. People don’t handle wild birds. They don’t clean wild bird cages, eat their eggs, butcher their bodies for food. So, despite your uninformed opinion, having domesticated birds in your yard definitely does give you greater risk of exposure to bird viruses, including the bird flu if should ever show up around here.
@ Punkerrooster: I doubt the chickens in people’s backyards are stuffed with antibiotics either, like they are that those mega-farms. All it takes is one bird carrying the virus to stop into a pen and share some feed with your chickens, and the deed is done.
You two need to get better informed before making such embarrassing and easily attacked statements…