City Chicken Farmers Keep Coops

Suburbanites and city dwellers are familiar enough with the urge to reconnect with farm life and see how food is produced, but many are taking that urge a step further: They're keeping their own chickens. Cities around the country are being asked to loosen controls on urban chicken coops so that families can keep a few hens around -- sometimes as pets, but often to supply fresh organic eggs. Others are passing their first-ever regulations to limit backyard chicken coops, simply because no one before had wanted to keep chickens, according to a story in the June 22 USA Today.