The Chickens are Taking Over!

Step aside, mountain pine beetle. There’s a new, unstoppable animal taking over our fair state, and its name is the urban chicken.

First the Denver Botanic Gardens held an April 26 class on raising chickens in the city, even though no one seemed certain whether the chickens were even allowed in Denver. Nevertheless, the class drew such an overwhelming response that the Gardens promptly expanded its urban chicken program.

And now another nearby city is considering fowl play. Last week the Fort Collins zoning board recommended the city begin allowing residents to keep up to six chickens in a coop, paving the way for its city council to vote on the issue. The development is the handiwork of Dan Brown (not the weirdo Da Vinci Code Dan Brown), a local who’s so cuckoo over cluckers he’s launched a blog chronicling his crusade, Fort Collins Urban Chickens.

Who knows? Maybe soon you’ll be hearing telltale clucking right on the other side of your backyard fence. Be afraid. Be very afraid. – Joel Warner