Cluck-raking journalism

Perhaps you are in a fowl mood this morning. Too much turkey, pie and pinot noir has made your stomach sour and your head hurt. Well then, don't even consider how much worse things would be if you had to get up a 6 a.m. to feed your cluckin' chickens...

By Jonathan Shikes

November 28, 2008

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Perhaps you are in a fowl mood this morning. Too much turkey, pie and pinot noir has made your stomach sour and your head hurt. Well then, don't even consider how much worse things would be if you had to get up a 6 a.m. to feed your cluckin' chickens.

Then again, maybe you'd like it. Lots of people like chickens, even city dwellers, and the city of Longmont will become the latest in Colorado to consider allowing residents to raise the birds in their backyards. Although Longmont's zoning commission voted down the proposal, the issue will come before the City Council sometime in December.

The urban chicken movement has taken flight across the country, as the Longmont Times-Call outlined in this story. In Denver, the issue has been downed out by buzzing about backyard bee hives. Still, chickens could be next.

The rules on whether people can keep them here are somewhat confusing, but that hasn't stopped the Denver Botanic Gardens from offering classes on how to care for an urban flock, as Westword's Joel Warner reported earlier this year in Clucked Up and Clucky Charm (second item).

Stay tuned. It's a issue that just won't fly the coop. -- Jonathan Shikes

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