By Katie Burns

At Seattle Tilth's Harvest Fair, chicken owners talk with attendees about the experience of keeping backyard chickens. Seattle Tilth, which teaches urbanites about organic agriculture, also offers City Chickens classes and an annual tour of backyard coops. (Courtesy of Baker Rawlings/Seattle Tilth)Keeping backyard chickens might or might not amount to a trend in other cities, but in Seattle, the practice is both legal and popular enough to prompt the need for educational programs and materials for chicken owners and local veterinarians.

Seattle Tilth, a nonprofit organization that teaches urbanites about organic agriculture, offers "City Chickens 101" or "City Chickens 201" about once a month. The organization also coordinates a tour of backyard chicken coops every summer.

"People love seeing chickens in backyards," said Angelina Shell, coordinator of the City Chickens program. "It's a wonderful way of building community."

A longtime city law allows residents to keep three chickens. Shell said many Seattle residents want to be closer to the source of their food—and chicken owners can gather eggs right from the backyard. When she started raising chickens, many of her neighbors came to visit.

"I tell people to be good neighbors and bribe their neighbors with eggs—and to avoid roosters," Shell said.

For veterinary care, some local chicken owners turn to the Bird and Exotic Clinic of Seattle.

"I see a few chickens for regular check-ups," said Dr. Tracy D. Bennett, co-owner of the clinic and a diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners, board-certified in Avian Practice. "We are fortunate to have some excellent chicken owners who are very bonded to their chickens. Unfortunately, we usually see (the chickens) only when they're ill."

Dr. Bennett said common conditions she sees in hens include bacterial infections, trauma from raccoon or dog attacks, and cancer of the reproductive organs. The clinic has conducted many surgeries on hens, sometimes to remove the foreign bodies that chickens are prone to eat.

The clinic provides informational materials on poultry health—particularly issues of diet, parasites, and predators. Dr. Bennett does not see problems with keeping chickens in the city, because urban areas have less predatory wildlife and a less-dense poultry population than many rural areas.

"I think many city dwellers enjoy having chickens because they want to feel closer to a rural life and they enjoy having fresh eggs," Dr. Bennett said. "A lot of people in Seattle have vegetable gardens, also, and fancy themselves urban farmers. A surprising number of people have ducks and goats as well!"

Veterinarians at Washington State University and the Washington State Department of Agriculture are organizing a course to introduce general practitioners to the medical concerns associated with pet poultry. They recently received a grant toward the costs from the American Veterinary Medical Foundation as part of AVMF support for training in disaster response, including response to outbreaks of disease such as avian influenza.

Course organizers hope to disseminate materials about pet poultry to veterinarians across the country after offering sessions at several in-state locations.