Urban residents turn to chickens as pets

COLLEYVILLE, Texas — The leaves shiver, the branches quake and 9-year-old Sophia Genco bounds out of the bushes, clucking at the top of her lungs while sprinting after a flock of scurrying chickens.

She isn't chasing down dinner. She's just playing with one of the family pets.

The Gencos are among a growing number of urban and suburban families keeping chickens in their back yards. While the birds don't cuddle like kittens or play like puppies, owners say they offer a soothing presence in the yard and an endless supply of organic eggs.

"Nothing calms you more than sitting out in the yard watching your chickens poke around for bugs and carry on conversations with each other," said Carla Allen, who keeps chickens on her ranch in San Marcos.

There are no firm numbers available to illustrate the growth because it's hard to define who's keeping chickens for pets and who's keeping them to eat, said Bob Vetere, president of the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association. Vetere, whose trade group tracks trends in the pet market, said there is evidence to suggest the organic trend is fueling a pet-chicken underground, especially in middle America.

Backyard Poultry magazine was resurrected about a year and a half ago after being halted in the 1980s. Readership in the Medford, Wis.-based publication has skyrocketed compared with its publisher's other two animal magazines — sheep! Magazine and Dairy Goat Journal.

Publisher Dave Belanger said Backyard Poultry's more than 50,000 subscribers exceeded his expectations tenfold.

Bud Wood, president of the Murray McMurray Hatchery in Webster City, Iowa, said he's amazed at the number of calls he's gotten from urban residents.

"The biggest growth I see is the organic group that want to know where their eggs are from," he said. "A lot of urban people fall into that family."

That's the case for Natalie Genco, who lives in Colleyville, a Dallas suburb. The mother of four said eggs from the family's chickens taste better than the store-bought variety and that her children have fun looking for them.

"It's like Easter every day," Sophia said.

Each of the family's nine hens lays an egg every day, providing up to 63 eggs a week. The chickens eat grasshoppers and mosquitoes that thrive in the humid summer weather, an added benefit, Natalie Genco said.