An unusual sound can be heard in the Crowne Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. Listen carefully as trains clatter across elevated tracks and cars and delivery trucks scurry here and there and you might hear a rooster crow.
Few would believe that chickens are common in America’s largest city, but they are thriving in all parts of New York. “I’d say the chicken population has grown 100% since 2009,” said Greg Anderson, Urban Agriculture Manager of Just Food, a private nonprofit organization that encourages chickens and other forms of food production.
The crowing rooster lives contentedly with several hens in the Imani Community Garden near the corner of Syracuse and Dean. Although in an amazingly urban area, the chickens share a community garden with beds of vegetables and a few leafy trees that form a green oasis in the urban landscape.
Unlike in many American towns chickens have never been banned by ordinance in New York and many other large cities. They were part of the immigrant experience, and interest in raising chickens is growing as fast in the city as it is in smaller towns across the country.
Many New Yorkers live in quiet Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island neighborhoods and keep small coops in their backyards. Others live in massive apartment buildings in densely populated neighborhoods and lack a yard. That’s were community gardens enter.
Many years ago New York was pockmarked by abandoned lots where people tossed trash and consummated drug deals. Entertainer Bette Midler and others saw potential and several nonprofit organizations were formed to convert them to green places where neighbors could gather to grow food and keep chickens. Imani Garden, like dozens of others, is owned by the New York Restoration Project, a nonprofit that places conservation easements on land so they legally remain open space. Just Food, another nonprofit, organizes community gardens and CSAs and teaches people how to raise chickens in the city.
“Not all community gardens have chickens but many do and every garden handles its flock a little differently,” said Greg Anderson, Urban Agriculture Manager for Just Food. Often flock responsibility is divided among many families that each care for the birds on a specific day. That’s the day a specific family keeps the eggs. Other gardens sell eggs at farmers markets and use proceeds to operate the organization.
Some urbanites keep chickens as pets. Anderson tells of a woman in Queens who has leashes for her two pet chickens and regularly takes them for walks.
Live in a big city and want to keep chickens? It’s not impossible and it’s likely there are already chickens near your home. A good way to locate local resources is to simply GOOGLE “Chickens in (name of your city)”. To learn more about the New York chicken and gardening experience check out Just Food or New York Restoration Project
