Chicken Night at the Bean Cycle!!

Todd Simmons is graciously hosting Chicken Night at the Bean Cycle/Matter Bookstore on August 7th @ 7:00pm. The PBS special "The Natural History of the Chicken" will be shown as well as a panel of speakers yet to be determined.
We will also be selling t-shirts to support our efforts and to spread the word about the benefits of raising chickens in your own back yard. The design has been finalized and is now at the printer. We hope to have them ready for Chicken Night.

2 comments:

Barb said...

Oooh, I didn't know the T-shirt design was completed! I look forward to seeing them, though I won't be able to make the Chicken Night. Let us know when and where else we'll be able to get them.

Ani said...

I just found your link on a previous post for contacting the city council members and sent an email. I thought I would copy and paste my letter to them here, for other advocates to read my take on the value of urban hens:

Hello. I want to make my request to the city council to legalize the keeping of backyard hens for Fort Collins city residents. I teach an in-home early childhood program, and want to offer hen care and the gathering and consumption of fresh, home-grown eggs as part of my gardening and cooking curriculum. Raising children to care for animals, raise and grow food, and do real, back-to-nature work, fosters an accessible and understandable connection to where food comes from while instilling the important values of responsibility, caring and compassion for all life, and a strong work ethic. Many families can not or do not want to live a life of farming on the outskirts of the city, and would prefer to blend a lifestyle of connection with earth and local food and a lifestyle of city culture and local community. My three children and I want be conveniently in town, walk and bicycle to Old Town for errands and events, as well as to love and care for hens as pets and food providers for our family. I want to feed hens my kitchen scraps and back yard weeds, and utilize their composted manure in my home garden. I want to allow the hens to peck and turn over the soil in my garden beds each Spring, because they do a much better job than a tiller and require no gasoline to be consumed, saving me many hours of back breaking labor (as I must do the work with a baby in a pack on my back).
I am originally from Oregon, and I saw and experienced a very successful model of the allowance of urban hens while I was there. It seemed to enrich the local culture, feed many families, and help people be more self-sufficient. Complaints from neighbors and other community members were virtually unheard of. Thank you for your time and consideration of my request.