Backyard chicken coop tour attracts those curious about coops in their own yards

therecord.com
April 23, 2017
By Liz Monteiro

Leanne Cochrane dragged her husband to a chicken coop tour in Kitchener Saturday.

"This tour is her trying to convince me" to get a chicken coop, said Paul Ethier, who was impressed by Alayne Kleser's coop setup, but wasn't quite sure about starting one himself.

"I like the idea of eating local and producing my own food," said Cochrane, who hopes to build a coop in the backyard of her Mannheim home.

"We don't want to support big factory farming," she said. "I'm a hick at heart."

A steady stream of people dropped into the Klesers' backyard on Gibson Drive to check out their newly-built coop with six hens.

Six other homes were on the tour where curious-onlookers could learn about keeping chickens in the backyards.

"We eat a lot of egg-based meals," joked Kleser, who has five children.

She started the Kitchener-based group, Kitchener Urban Hens, to help others learn about raising chickens in their backyard

Last November Kitchener councillors moved to overturn a three-decade old ban on backyard chickens, allowing people to keep up to four hens in backyard coops.

The Klesers have six hens because they had that many before the bylaw was passed and were allowed to keep them.

Chickens had been banned in Kitchener since 1987, but bylaw officers stopped enforcing the ban when the city began studying whether to lift the ban.

On the tour, many had questions about what to feed chickens, how to build a coop and how to keep their water from freezing in the winter.

Liu Yang hopes to build in her Kitchener backyard.

"I came to get ideas. I didn't know what the configuration looked like inside," she said. "I'm not sure how much work it will be."

For the Klesers, the chickens have become pets and each one has a name.

"They are confined and no louder than a dog," she said. "They are pets with benefits. They give you eggs, to boot."

For some on the tour, chicken coops are nostalgic and remind them of their childhood.

Maggie Fleming said as a child in the 1960s and 1970s, her family had chickens in their Kitchener backyard.

"I'm one of 10 and we had a big garden, too," said Fleming, who recalls offering the chickens table scraps.

Kleser said her chickens love vegetables and fruit.

"They love grapes and yogurt. They devour pumpkin and watermelon," she said.

Michelle Vanderzon, of Schomberg, who lives near the Holland Marsh, drove to Kitchener to look at other people's chicken coops. She also has a chicken coop in her backyard.

Vanderzon has had chickens since her teenage, son built the coop.

"It's the easiest pet to keep," she said. "I let them wander around the yard. I'm like the Piped Piper. They follow me around."

Vanderzon's chicken lays four eggs a day and she gives them to her sister, mother and brings them to school where she works as a vice-principal at an elementary school in Thornhill.