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Weekend for chickens and garlic

What do garlic and chickens have in common. Well, cooked together they make a great meal, but separately they are the themes for two local community events this Saturday.

Don't miss the first ever Albuquerque Chicken Coop Tour organized by members of ABQ Urban Chickens here on DCF. Come get ideas on how to start your own backyard flock by touring 7 coops courtesy of Albuquerque backyard chicken keepers. Then get your garlic on at the South Valley Garlic Festival, located at the beautiful Chispas Farm, where you can dig, braid, eat and talk everything garlic.

These two events don't overlap, so be sure to check out backyard chicken coops in the morning, and then get ready to eat some garlic in the late afternoon and evening. Follow the links below for event details, time and locations.

Albuquerque Coop Tour

South Valley Garlic Festival

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Comment by andrea on June 20, 2008 at 6:28pm: we just got our chicks and we're hoping to catch some of the coop tour.

the garlic festival sounds delightful, trying to make that as well!

Comment by Aly Sanchez on June 20, 2008 at 10:56pm: I keep forgetting to take pix of my chicken coop for the DCF chook group... My critical tip in coop design: make sure the laying boxes are lower than any roosting sticks or ledges.

I'll probably miss the garlic fest but the folks from Chispas Farm rock - very friendly and helpful. If you like garlic, don't miss this one, they grow a whole bunch of varieties.

I haven't been to Chispas but my biz partner was there today (we'll actually be pairing their garlic scapes and organic chicken in crepes tomorrow at the downtown growers market). She said it was a beautiful farm.

Comment by mombat on June 21, 2008 at 11:12am: We were at Chispas last night and the farm looks great, and smells great too,

Comment by chantal on June 22, 2008 at 8:16am: How did the coop tour turn out? Anyone grab photos?

Comment by zoodeb on June 22, 2008 at 8:36am: I LOVED the coop tour. I don't have chickens yet, am doing my homework first. There was a nice range from very simple functional coops, to beautiful "designer" coops, to large multiplexes ! I great range of birds too. Friendly little bantams who let one hold them and large regal ladies strutting in full adornment. Black and white and golden and tawny and speckled and spotted and fluffy and sleek. There was one, a Silkie, whose feathers looked more like angora fur than anything a bird would wear. So, thank you Urban Chicken Folks for setting this up. It was a delight.

Comment by chantal on June 22, 2008 at 9:58am: Here's the link:
Group teaches city dwellers the ins and outs of raising chickens

Tour takers saw coops of all kinds, from Jennifer Dwyer's red, A-shaped abode with a roosting bar and ramp, to Jesse Bock's storage shed-like shanty, also known as "Coopzilla" or "Fort Cocks." The Bock family's four hens can roam on a long stretch of space along the property line in the Northeast Heights.

Bock and his wife, Jade, landed the birds about 18 months ago. After an initial learning curve, the avocation required less effort.

"They're really easy pets," Bock said.

Across the country, the urban chicken movement has been making news, said city resident KT LaBadie.

LaBadie and her husband, Mark Scully, launched the Web site UrbanChickens.org— "where a wealth of chicken related information can be shared"— not long after LaBadie started a group on Duke City Fix last year.

"In Albuquerque, we've always been allowed to keep chickens; it's been in our ordinances. There was no movement around being able to keep these chickens," she said. "But in other cities, it wasn't legal, so groups organized."

The movement has gained popularity in such cities as Madison, Wisc., Fort Collins, Colo., and Missoula, Mont., LaBadie said.

"It's not just about groups organizing to approach their city council and saying, 'Hey, we really want to be able to keep two to six hens in our backyard for egg production,' '' she said. "It's also about people organizing in places where it's already legal to do so and teaching other people about how to keep chickens and organizing things like coop tours to get people interested."