Is a backyard garden complete without a coop? The last few years have seen a surge in popularity of chicken-keeping, making chickens as much at home in the city as on a rural farm. Here are our favorite backyard flocks (plus one that lives on a ferryboat):
Above: In Rhode Island, Gardenista contributor Christine Chitnis and family are backyard chicken wranglers. "Our four 'girls' don't seem to understand the concept of coming back to their coop once night falls," she says. "And so we head out into the backyard to chase them down. It's always comical, with one of us wielding a rake, and my husband cursing lightly under his breath as he crawls through the bushes."
Above: Jessi Bloom, author of Free-Range Chicken Gardens, keeps backyard chickens. See the rest of her flock in Free-Range Chicken Gardens: How to Create a Beautiful, Chicken-Friendly Yard. Photograph by Kate Baldwin.
Above: In Oakland, CA store owner Jamie Kidson keeps chickens and bees in her backyard garden. For more, see A Simple Garden in Oakland, Chickens Included.
Above: Actress Shiva Rose grows produce for herself and her two daughters in her LA garden and relies on chicken eggs for protein. For the whole story, see Shiva Rose's Rustic LA Garden. Photograph via Rip + Tan.
Above: Chickens on the deck of a converted ferryboat in New York City, the home of designers Victoria and Richard MacKenzie-Childs. Read more in Are You the Only Person Not Raising Chickens in the City? Photograph by Navid Baraty.
Above: Tasha Shoo grows food for her husband and three children at her home near Melbourne, Australia. Among her animalia are chickens, pigs, and bees. Read about her mission in Garden Visit: A Modern Farmer in Australia. Photograph by Tara Pearce.
Above: This chicken runs the grounds of a dilapidated Belgian farmhouse converted into a four-bedroom guest house, complete with edible garden. See the transformation in Before and After: A Fairytale Farmhouse Rescued from Ruin. Photographs via Booking.
Above: Clemmie Hambro's aging chickens like to dig up "a nice chicken-size hole where they then sit and sunbath for three hours." For more of their adventures, read School's Out: Three Kids, 11 Baby Chicks, and a Garden in Bloom. Photograph by Clemmie Hambro.
Above: Cheep the rooster has a sad story about how he came to artist Celia Hart. But he now lives a charmed life inside an old walled garden near Cambridge, England. Read the story in Celia's Garden: At Home with an English Artist and Her Chickens. Photograph by Jim Powell for Gardenista.
Love animals? Read on:
- From Goat to Table: Harley Farms on the California Coast
- Garden Visit: An Oregon Garden Where Deer Are Welcome
- 11 Ways to Make Your Garden Dog Friendly
- Going to the Dogs: The Magnificent Hound in London
More Stories from Gardenista