City folk look for fresh air and cage-free living on rural retirement farms for their backyard chickens

If you own backyard chickens and have ever wondered what to do with them when they stopped producing eggs, other than eating them, Oregon may have an answer. Some Portlanders are sending old chickens to animal sanctuaries in rural areas out of concern the birds need open air and cage-free roaming in their later years. (Photo by Leah Nash, NYT)

The urban chicken retirement movement has led two farm animal sanctuaries and self-described chicken slinger Pete Porath (left) to expand their operations to accommodate the birds. Porath brokers chicks to feed stores and other buyers from his five-acre farm in Estacada. He told New York Times reporter Lee Van Der Voo that he "rehomes" 1,000 to 2,000 birds a year, most from Portland. He said the birds go to farms where they eat pests, turn compost, keep grass down or are used for breeding or as pets.

Wayne Geiger has taken in about 100 city chickens at his Lighthouse Farm Sanctuary in Scio, Ore., but says people have misconceptions about how the birds live when they arrive. "People think they go out to the sanctuary and they go skipping through the meadows and the fields are covered in daisies," he said. In reality, they birds have to be penned to prevent breeding, cockfights and predator attacks. He told Van Der Voo cities should revise chicken-keeping policies to allow backyard flocks grow to include aging birds. (Read more)