We began our venture into chicken keeping in 2012.
We didn’t take it lightly. The responsibility to provide daily care year-round is a serious matter. To gauge our level of commitment and the impact on the garden and neighborhood, we began by fostering a flock overwintering from the Earth Matters Compost Project on Governor’s Island. Turns out, we loved it! And neither snow, nor rain, nor heat nor darkness kept us from the twice-daily visits and weekly coop scrub-downs.
Despite some early resistance from irate/concerned neighbors (we made the NYT! https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/22/nyregion/chickens-threaten-to-divide-park-slope-community.html), we committed to winning the hearts and minds of naysayers. In May of 2014 we started our own flock with day-old chicks, delivered by mail. Two of those original cast members–Dolly and Bandit–are still among us. When people ask us “how long do chickens ask,” we look at Dolly and Bandit and say “We’re about to find out!” In May 2017, we received three more day-old chicks to bolster the flock.
After learning about the inherent cruelty of hatcheries, we committed ourselves to chicken rescue and adoption entirely. We started partnering with New Hope–an arm of Animal Care Centers (ACC)–to take in abandoned, abused and neglected chickens in an effort to give them a happy existence free from hardship for the rest of their lives. Our network grew, and to date we have adopted not only from ACC, but Gowanus Island as well as neighbors as distant as Long Island and as close as Queens and Park Slope. We now have quiet an eclectic, diverse, and hilarious flock that seem to have settled into one another. Our break-out room, “the cooplette,” was built in 2019 and serves as a safe space where newly-adopted hens can observe their new flock, living side-by-side (by separated), until they are ready to merge! We also refer to the cooplette as the “convalescence ward,” as it is where chickens can be temporarily placed when they receive medical care.
Our chickens are fantastic ambassadors of the garden, and hilarious to watch and interact with. Come on by to say hello and get your feet pecked/pizza stolen!
The Elders
The New and New(ish) Gals
The Polish Buffs (a.k.a., “The Muppets”)
The flock is cared for by a team of 20+ “Chicken Tenders.” There is a shift every morning and every evening in which the hens are let out to forage and given fresh food and water. We routinely tidy up after them, and each weekend, the Tenders rotate in to clean and disinfect the coop, the waterer, and the feeder.
The chicken project has been a huge success. The hens have attracted many visitors, especially children, boosted membership, and inspired new enthusiasm for nurturing and sharing our green space.
The Tenders are a fun, creative and often silly bunch who adore the girls. The Tenders paint them, make special meals for them, and even invent fake bands inspired by them. So, come check out our inspirational, feathered muses–and consider joining the team!
(Photos (left): water color of Munch by Tender and artist Stephanie Stamm; “album drop” by fictional band The Broodies (including such hits as “Hen Pecked,” “Chocka-Chocka,” and “God Save the Grubs”); Halloween-themed photography session with Lisa and Luca); reading abolitionist legal theory with a very fierce and fabulous Eleanor; Dolly in a tiny hat knitted by a Chicken Tender’s niece; Dominique in a tiny hat, also knitted by a Chicken Tender’s niece.)
(Photos (right): water color of Munch by Stephanie Stamm; water color of Dolly by Tender and artist Robert Weiss (on Instagram @rweissart))
In Memoriam
There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Appareled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
– William Wordsworth, Ode on Imitations of Immortality
