Ruby is a sweetheart, little Mabel likes to hide and bossy Priscilla rules the roost – literally. The three chickens and their sister hens belong to Jason and Tishelle Ward and their two young daughters in the family’s Tacoma backyard.
The Wards live in a quiet (save for the occasional clucking) residential subdivision on Tacoma’s west side. It’s a typical urban neighborhood and not the traditional setting for a henhouse. But that’s the point of Saturday’s first Tacoma Urban Coop Tour.
Nine city coops, including the Wards’, will be on view for the free self-guided tour that highlights the efforts of urban poultry farmers – an increasingly popular trend in the northwest. Free tickets with the coop locations can be picked up now through Saturday at GardenSphere garden center on Proctor Street.
On a recent morning at the Ward ranchette their six chickens have just been released from their 6-foot-by6-foot henhouse. Two hens stayed inside to lay eggs while the others are hunting bugs in the backyard and taking dust baths. Mabel is still hiding under the nesting boxes.
It was Jason’s idea to raise chickens in their backyard two years ago. Tishelle took some convincing. “There’s a reason why we live in the city and I think you’re nuts,” she remembers telling Jason. Tishelle finally relented under two conditions: “It’s got to be pretty and I’m not picking up chicken poo.”
Jason satisfied both requirements with an attractive red-and-white building filled with wood shavings that need cleaning out only once a year. If the Wards or future owners decide that the chicken days are over, the building could double as a garden shed or playhouse.
The couple say they had to learn that chickens are not pets. Their beagle and the couple’s youngest daughter were both briefly infected with campylobacter, a bacteria that chickens can carry and can cause temporary infections in humans and other animals. “There was a learning curve,” Tishelle said. Now they maintain hygiene practices that any commercial livestock producer is well acquainted with.
Tishelle opens a side door revealing the two hens sitting on their nests. She gently reaches in and produces three still-warm eggs: a brown, green and miniature. The green was laid by Scarlet, an Ameraucana variety (related to the South American Araucana). The small egg was laid by Mabel, a bantam Cochin variety. The six hens lay off and on during the year providing the Wards with more eggs than they need – usually. “Our milkman actually laughed at me last year when I asked him for a carton of eggs,” Tishelle said.
The eggs are a big reason why the Wards raise their chickens. Jason said their chickens produce eggs with firm, bright-orange yolks. “The store-bought eggs are so disappointing to eat now,” Tishelle said.
The henhouse is attached to a small fenced yard. It’s completely enclosed with wire, including a foot below the surface. The area’s vibrant and busy wildlife can easily make a midnight snack of defenseless chickens. Raccoons, opossums, foxes, skunks and larger predators all have a taste for chicken.
The chickens are always kept separated from the Wards’ beagle though Tishelle is pretty sure feisty Penelope could take the dog on in a feathers versus fur showdown.
There’s a reason why the Wards only have hens. Roosters are not permitted within Tacoma city limits. Their crowing tends to drive neighbors a little batty. The Wards say their hens can get loud at times, but the neighbors haven’t objected. “They’ve complained about the beagle (barking) but not the chickens,” Jason said.
In January, Jason cleans out the wood shavings and deposits them on the family’s five raised beds to compost. In summer the garden thrives with peas, tomatoes, lettuce and other vegetables. The couple buy about 50 pounds of chicken feed every two months. They supplement the chickens’ diet with table scraps, grass clippings and garden leftovers.
As the chickens scratch in the dirt and pluck grass Tishelle seems amazed by her previous resistance to chicken farming. “Now I love them,” she says.
Craig Sailor: 253-597-8541
craig.sailor@thenewstribune.com
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