My two hens, Wanda and Neutron, are popular gals--trendsetters, even. Whenever friends or neighbors find out we keep chickens for fresh eggs and enterntainment, they want to know if they can do it, too. My inner home educator recently realized we were getting to critical mass with the inquiries. So last Friday I held "Chicken School" in my backyard.

Together with my hen-wrangling neighbor Stefani, we and the birds hosted half a dozen families who wanted to learn more about suburban backyard poultry--everything from where to get birds (feed stores, hatcheries, Craig's list) to what to do when your laying hen goes broody (keep taking the eggs). There were questions from the kids about keeping roosters in the city (don't) and from the adults about whether chickens really eat fire ants (yep).

Stefani and I showed off our hen pens made from dog runs, nest boxes made from insulated dog houses and cat-litter boxes, and her awesome possum-proofing with fine-mesh wire. The children cuddled the hens--the ones they could catch, anyway--and the grownups took notes. It was a fun and useful couple of hours.

For those of you who are interested in learning more about backyard poultry but aren't sure where to start, I hereby offer Virtual Chicken School via the links I provided all my students. First, if you live in a city or subdivision with a homeowner's association, you'll need to find out whether and how you can keep pet hens. Most municipalities post their animal-control ordinances online, which will tell you whether poultry is banned or what conditions must be met. (In Austin, for instance, a coop housing two or more fowl has to be at least fifty feet from your neighbors' homes, and in San Antonio you're limited to three fowl per residence.)

Once you know whether you can have chickens you'll want to know how to take care of them, how to house them and what to expect from them. The two best online general-care resources I've found are Urban Chickens and My Pet Chicken's ebook. For more specifics on health, check out the poultry health database from the University of Minnesota and an article on small-flock vaccinations from the University of Florida.

If you decide to keep hens, your kids or grandkids will probably want in on the fun. My boys enjoy collecting eggs and feeding kitchen scraps to Wanda and Neutron. Enchanted Learning has a couple of good general pages on chickens for older kids and younger ones, too. If they prefer the idea of a chicken to the real deal, there are coloring pages, too. And don't forget chicken jokes.

My friend Courtney was one of the attendees Friday. If you've never seen the eyelashes on a chicken before, now you can; she's got chicken glamor shots at her blog.

Do any of you keep chickens? If so, what's the best part? For me, it's the fact that the hens eat the snakes and bugs in my compost piles. The hardest part? Keeping them from taking dust baths in the planting beds.

Photo: Author's private collection.

Casey Kelly Barton writes, gardens and keeps hens in Austin. She blogs at Redneck Mother.