SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Rowan Holroyd is only three, but he already knows a lot about caring for chickens.

Rowan Holroyd, 3, holds an egg collected from his family's backyard chicken coop while his sister Jasmine, 5, looks on. - Meagan Leonard/NNSL photos Rowan Holroyd, 3, left, Hugh Moloney, and Jasmine Holroyd, 5, feed their backyard chickens.

"Over here! This is where we get the eggs," he says with excitement, opening a wooden hatch beneath his tree house. Under the fort is a chicken coop six hens call home, and it's Rowan's job to collect their eggs each day, with help from his older sister Jasmine.

Their father, Hugh Moloney said he was inspired to build the structure after visiting New Zealand and noticing many childrens' play centres incorporated aspects of animal play and interaction.

"I built this tree house for the kids and we had this empty space at the bottom and so we decided to build in a chicken house ... so it would be interactive with the kids and a way of producing a little bit of our own food too," he explained.

On average, their hens produce three eggs per day, which the family uses or shares with neighbours. Then during the winter months the birds are relocated to an indoor coop on a friend's property.

Moloney says while having fresh eggs is great, the learning opportunity for the children has been even more rewarding.

"They're certainly learning about being responsible for animals," he said.

"Even when they have friends over, the first thing they want to do is show them the chickens and for a lot of kids that age here they've never seen one before so it's a really great experience."

As the local food movement gains momentum, urban hens are becoming more and more popular.

Studies have shown eggs collected from free-range chickens allowed to move around and peck for food are often higher in nutrients than their factory-raised counterparts. Chickens are also relatively low maintenance, cheap to house, create fertilizer for gardening and make friendly pets.

Darwin Rudkevitch owns Arctic Farmer Nursery in Kam Lake and has had farmyard animals behind his house for about 10 years. It started with goats and has since expanded to include, sheep, donkeys and fowl. While the larger animals more or less exist as a neighbourhood attraction, the 50 or so chickens have become a valuable source of meat and eggs for his family and the community.

"The fresh eggs are way better than what you can get in the grocery store," he said.

Although all said and done, the cost differential is not significant, Rudkevitch says the social and nutritional benefits of producing your own food are exponential.

"It's probably the same cost as in the grocery store, but at least I know all of our animals ... are not full of steroids or antibiotics," he explained.

"There's a huge difference. I can roast (my) chicken breast in the oven and it will be ready in 30 minutes. I can buy one from the grocery store and it will take 45 minutes because of all the water."

Rudkevitch said their chickens tend to be a little tougher than commercial birds, but this is because they are free range and develop more muscle - which is healthier for the animals, adding his chicken stays juicier longer than store-bought meat which tends to dry out quickly.

"All of Canada is going through this shop within 100 kilometres thing," he said.

"We can get fresh farm eggs right in Yellowknife - for us it's important."

Rudkevitch now provides supplies for other would-be chicken farmers in the city, supplying them with feed he orders from the south. He has also started shipping animals to communities like Gameti looking to start their own co-ops.

Although his is a larger scale operation, he says it would not be very difficult or costly to host a small group of hens in the backyard.

"You need a coop, a heat source for the winter, fresh water and that's about it," he said. "It's not that expensive, you can buy a chick for $1 and it will take 90 days for it to start laying eggs."

City of Yellowknife spokesperson Richard McIntosh stated in an e-mail that the city's only animal by-law refers to dogs, effectively allowing backyard hens in a controlled situation.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part 1 of a two-part series looking at backyard animals in the city. See Wednesday's edition for part 2 on goats.

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