In a city where the local food movement is growing despite the scarcity of arable green space, one Queens couple has come up with a creative way to ensure they have a ready supply of fresh eggs.
Robert McMinn, 45, and Jules Corkery, 45, are raising three hens inside their one-bedroom apartment in Astoria.
"I don't think it's the ideal situation," conceded McMinn, a public policy associate at the mental health group Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services. But "they're cute. They're fun to [watch] run around. They're excited when we come home."
The pair will talk about their experiences of raising chickens without the benefit of a backyard on Oct. 8 at the Broadway branch of the Queens Library in Astoria.
The Serama hens, a small domesticated breed that typically weighs about a pound, nest in a converted ferret cage in the living room, McMinn said.
They have the run of the apartment - except for the bedroom - and lay about two eggs each a week. They also have a litter box of sand so they can give themselves cleansing dust baths.
But "they poop everywhere," said McMinn, who uses the droppings to fertilize the soil in nearby community gardens.
McMinn began raising chickens in Idaho in 2003 to improve his garden, as the birds aerate the soil through their pecking and scratching and eat pests.
Three years later, he created a 10-minute community radio show called "Bucky Buckaw Backyard Chicken Broadcast" about the useful pets. The show is now on eight stations throughout the country.
"A chicken can save you money. It's a cheap hobby, and it improves your gardening," said McMinn, who doesn't recommend raising them indoors. "You get the eggs and they're delicious."
The small brown eggs can also pick up the flavor of what the chickens eat, said McMinn, who feeds his pets table scraps.
McMinn and Corkery give lectures at local libraries and urban gardens on the benefits of city chicken-keeping.
Joanne King, a Queens Library spokeswoman, said the lectures have been a hit.
"Urban chickening is an environmentally sound practice," she said. "It's part of the local food movement and organic eggs are very tasty and healthy."
Owen Taylor, the city farms manager at Just Food, a local food group, said raising chickens in the city is becoming quite popular.
"People are realizing they need to eat fresher, higher-quality food," he said. "And you can't get any fresher or higher quality than your backyard."
He said there are probably hundreds of chicken keepers in the city. But he doesn't recommend having them indoors - unless, like McMinn's birds, they are taken outdoors regularly.
"They need to give themselves dust baths, which kills any body parasites and keeps them clean," Taylor said. "It's important for chickens to be able to scratch in the earth for bugs, grubs, worms, etc."
Dr. Katherine Quesenberry, a veterinarian who specializes in avian species at the Animal Medical Center in Manhattan, agreed.
Chickens "benefit from exposure to natural sunlight and room to exercise," said Quesenberry, who noted the birds cannot be housebroken. "If you keep them indoors, you have to spend a lot of time cleaning up after them."
Corkery said she never thought she would have hens in her home.
But "they're loving and they're such sweet little characters," she said.
