At this point, we wouldn’t blame you for thinking the National Chicken Coop Building Lobby has this magazine on the dole: We’ve chronicled the beloved hens of Brooklyn chicken owners; we’ve covered a day of coop building in Hattie Carthan garden in Bed-Stuy on our weekly show on NY1; we’ve blogged about a local guy now building poultry palaces for construction-wary residents of the borough of Kings. But keeping chickens in the city is one of those win-win-win-win type scenarios you always hear about: Great-tasting eggs, a birdy bond with amazing animals, exposure to agriculture and to where your food comes from, a sense of accomplishment and maintaining responsibility, and physical labor in the great out-of-doors.
It’s the latter that’s needed next weekend, when the Just Food City Chicken Project–yup, we’ve blogged about them, too–seeks volunteers to help with a coop raising at Bed-Stuy Farm at 404 Decatur Street between Malcolm X Boulevard and Patchen Avenue, run by the Brooklyn Rescue Mission. It’ll be Friday and Saturday, August 12 and 13 from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Here’s the full scoop, please RSVP, and don’t forget to bring your own water, lunch, sunscreen and bug repellent, as well as a tape measure, power drill, circular saw, staple gun and last but not least, a pencil, should you have them. We’re not even going to mention how ironic it is that pencils are now almost more rare than chicken coops.
If you miss this one–they can only take around seven volunteers–you’ll just have to sign up to help Friends of Brook Park in Mott Haven in the Bronx on September 16 and 17.
