Parade of Chicken Homes

Terry is yearning to build a chicken coop and keep a few hens. I'm intrigued by the idea, too, but stymied by the problem of finding chicken-sitters when we leave town for a few days. It's a lot to ask of neighbors when it's fifteen degrees below zero or raining nonstop.

That might not be an issue if we lived in the Tenney-Lapham neighborhood, which held the Tour des (Chicken) Coops yesterday--a self-guided walking tour of family chicken-keeping operations in the heart of the city. Dozens of people, including us, took them up on the invitation on a hot, sunny June afternoon.

The gently eccentric mentality of Madison's near east side translated into glimpses past perimeters of deeply shaded sidewalks and shared driveways into hidden, miniature, complicated backyards, with murals painted on sheds, walkways dotted with blooms, creative landscaping with scavenged materials, and--of course--chicken coops tucked away in a corner, or featured as the focal point of the whole space.

We were delighted to find one man's tiny yard contained not only a spacious chicken coop, but an espaliered apple tree (bought from Shopko 15 years ago), and a beehive--with plenty of greenery and space shielding it all from view as well as containing paths of hay leading to other, undiscovered features and an iron bed installed for climbing plants.