Jennifer and Greg Coleman with one of their White Leghorn hens

Davidson’s recent adoption of new rules allowing us to keep up to four hens in our backyards may have you thinking about what it might take to join the trend.  This Saturday, Jan. 8, Greg and Jennifer Coleman on Virginia Road will offer a free how-to workshop, based on their experience raising chickens in Davidson and former homes in Raleigh and Austin, Texas.

The session will be Saturday, 3-5 p.m., at 740 Virginia Road, off Pine Road.

The Colemans are sharing chicken-raising responsibilities with next door neighbors Doug and Rea Wright. (Doug is the town’s public works chief.) Between them, the two families have five chickens.

A mobile "chicken tractor."

Mr. Coleman described his plans: “We will have both a mobile ‘chicken tractor’ for summer and a ‘winter house’ connected to our fenced-in vegetable garden patch. This allows our back yard to be fertilized and aerated without any smelly build-up and our chickens to be ‘free-range’ and grass-and-insect-fed while still being contained.”

In the winter, the chickens will have the run of the garden space, turning over compost and helping to prepare the ground. This spring, they’ll move around the yard on the chicken tractor – a mobile chicken coop. That will give seedlings a chance to start in the garden, Mr. Coleman said this week.

The chickens will be let back into the garden at mid-summer to eat pesky insects, which “are merely yummy delicacies to them.”

The Colemans have built chicken tractors previously over the years, both for themselves and other would-be backyard farmers. Since Davidson’s Town Board passed the new rules, he said they’ve had a couple of requests for help establishing small coops that meet the town regulations for responsible chicken-keeping. So they decided to offer this weekend’s workshop.

If you’re interested and want more information, call Greg at 704-706-2373 or email gregfro@gmail.com. If you’re planning to come to Saturday’s workship, give Greg a call so he can know how many people to expect.

“We are excited that Davidson is joining the ranks of places that value local, organic food that doesn’t have to be expensive and that can even be found in your own backyard. We would like to invite any interested citizens to come out and see how it can be done with a tour of our current set-up and a demonstration of Do-It-Yourself chicken tractor building.”

ABOUT THE NEW ORDINANCE

Davidson’s Town board approved the ordinance revisions on Dec. 15, which allows residents to raise up to four hens on their property within the town limits. Roosters remain prohibited. The new rules wouldn’t apply beyond the town border or in neighborhoods or subdivisions where neighborhood covenants prohibit chickens. From a practical standpoint, that means most residents beyond downtown and older neighborhoods still won’t be able to raise chickens.

Other conditions include:

• Slaughtering must be done indoors
• Chickens must be kept in a secure enclosure at night, and in a pen or fenced backyard in daylight.
• Coops must be least 10 feet from property lines.
• Chicken coops must be kept neat and cleaned regularly to prevent odors.

Download a copy of the ordinance on the Town website, CLICK HERE>

RELATED LINKS

Jan. 4, 2011, DavidsonNews.net Around Davidson column, “A proud grandpa, a congratulations and chicken tractors.” Columnist Brenda Barger visits the Colemans and learns more about them and their backyard chicken set-up.

Dec. 15, 2010, “Board gives thumbs-up to backyard chickens.”

Dec. 28, 2010, “Yes commissioner, you can pet them.”