Chickens

**"* H* <g*@charter.net>**

This is from Ellen Wells, who write in this the week's ezine Buzz! from Green Profit about an emerging trend.
Doreen Howard
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Latest garden retail trend. Chickens. And I'm serious about this. I first noticed this trend a few months ago when many of my new Twitter followers (@GPBuzz and @gardenquestion) were all about raising chickens at their urban/suburban homes. Not dozens of chickens, but just enough to provide a family with eggs (and eventually meat, I guess). My suspicions were raised again when I spotted a chicken coop and two hens at Drake's 7 Dees in Portland.

Leslie Halleck of North Haven Gardens in Dallas is a big advocate of the chicken trend. She says raising chickens is a natural progression of living within a sustainable and healthful framework. And apparently most of the people in her somewhat progressive Dallas neighborhood have coops in their back yard. 

Chickens aren't something you get into just off the cuff as a retailer. There's a lot of footwork that must be done, such as learning about zoning laws and regulations, etc. North Haven doesn't have chickens wandering around the nursery; they have partnered with someone who does the chicken sales. What North Haven does offer, however, are classes on raising chickens, resources for chicken owners, some chicken "hardware" (feed troughs, waterers, etc.) and branded feed products. Check out the Backyard Chickens category on Leslie's Grow Lively blog to find out all about her chicken experiences! Oh, and definitely expect a Chicken Retail 101 article in an upcoming issue of Green Profit. 

Thoughts on chickens? I want to hear them-e-mail me at ewells@ballpublishing.com. 
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