COLUMBUS, Ind. — Bill Porter, 28, drives his brown Subaru up the gravel driveway. The whirring and crackling underneath his all-wheel drive greets the quiet front yard.
He works a 9-to-5 civil engineering job. All day, he’s surrounded by construction projects, deadlines and numbers. But when he gets home, one of the first things he does is go see his chickens.
He lets the birds out of the coop and contentedly watches them roam as the sun fades. He adds straw to their pen when necessary and checks for eggs. Before nightfall, he herds them back in.
“It’s much easier than taking care of the dogs,” Bill says. “Even when we go out of town, our friends with no chicken-raising experience come over and look after them. It’s one of the many great things about having them.”
Bill and his wife Amber led a year-long fight to make backyard chicken keeping legal. On Oct. 4, they won. Now his four chickens are legal residents in the city of Columbus.
“It might seem like a frivolous topic,” Bill says, “but we’re trying to make a difference in our community.”
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The Porters are in the company of thousands of chicken-keepers across the state, country and globe. But for local governments questioning the legality of the practice, the birds are also a heated point of contention.
In Indianapolis and around the United States, residents can rent the egg-laying hens — coop and all — through services such as Naptown Chickens. People show chickens for ribbons and pride. “Chicken People,” a documentary released at the end of September, explores the lives of some of these feather-loving fanatics.
The traditional egg industry has had to adapt to the cage-free craze. Companies such as McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Trader Joe’s and Dunkin’ Donuts are demanding cage-free only from their suppliers, because that’s what the public wants. If consumers can’t get it from these food giants, they’ll raise their own chickens instead.
Backyard chicken keeping isn’t limited to farmers and the health conscious. It’s a hobby that middle-class families are adopting in droves.
For Bill and Amber, and for many others, the battle to keep these chickens is more than just personal.
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The Porters have four ISA Browns, a cross between the Rhode Island Red and the Rhode Island White. They’re a hardy, quiet breed, easy to care for and highly social. They have plenty of space to roam in the backyard, with patches of grass worn down from excessive digging and a chicken coop that Bill built himself.
“One day, Easter of last year, I believe, Amber just decided that we were going to get chickens,” Bill says. “And that’s what we did.”
Edith, one of the four hens, lets a soft coo rumble through her throat before she jabs her beak at the ground in search for fresh grubs. She struts, scratching the beaten earth with her feet. One of her toes is missing.
“It doesn’t stop her,” Bill notes. “These animals are crazy tough. One of the many things I’ve learned since we got them Easter of last year.”
Keeping chickens has given the Porters eggs to share with family and friends.
It’s granted them another hobby to enjoy after long days at work. Most importantly, it’s shaped their understanding of what it means to practice sustainability.
There’s no greater feeling, Bill says, than grabbing a pale brown egg, still warm from the body of the hen that laid it, out of the coop first thing in the morning.
Nothing beats making fresh, environmentally conscious food provided by the animals you’ve raised since they were fluffy, days-old chicks.
“We want more people to have a part in what they consume,” Bill says. “Without the amendment, though, many people wouldn’t know what that’s like.”
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On July 5, Bill went in front of crowds of concerned citizens in Columbus City Hall to talk about his chickens. About 70 people showed up, and nearly 30 took to the floor to share their perspectives.
“There were people overflowing the city chambers,” Bill says.
Wearing a dress shirt and tie, Bill looked like a typical young professional. As a 28-year-old civil engineer, he would be one of the last people expected to stand in front of such a large crowd, delivering an address about chicken keeping. But that’s exactly what he was going to do.
In his speech, Bill went over what it means to keep a chicken ethically. He was preceded and followed by many other impassioned residents.
The question for the council to decide: Were chickens farm animals, banned from the backyards of Columbus residents? Or were they pets, which people are allowed to keep?
The Porters founded the Columbus Homeowners Initiative for Chicken Keeping, or CHICK, to declare that chickens are more than just farm animals — they’re pets and sources of enjoyment for everyone to keep.
Bill said it was his job to change this legal language, and if that required starting a group and standing in front of crowds to defend his position, he was willing to do it.
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In the summer, Bill and dozens of other Columbus residents took their case to the city council.
“The concerns were made clear on both sides,” said Tom Dell, city councilman. “People who are anti-chicken have concerns for health and diseases, noise complaints, smells and making sure the people who have chickens now wouldn’t encroach on the enjoyment of their neighbors.”
The council created a 10-member subcommittee. One of the pro-chicken members was Jill Sharp, the public housing manager in Columbus.
She had been one of the loudest voices at previous meetings, as one of the administrators of the “Urban Chickens in Columbus, Indiana” Facebook page.
Jill and her husband Mike, 51, have five chickens. They got the birds for their eggs and compost, but now they consider them part of the family just as much as the cats and dog.
Lemon, a large white Brahma, has feathers growing out across her feet. She scurries around the Sharps’ large backyard, clucking harshly.
She’s the leader of the flock, so her peers — Laverne, Shirley, Popeye and Ethel — are close behind.
As they snap up the scraps Jill and Mike leave out for them, they leave a trail of feathers behind. It’s molting season, so they’re unusually skittish and moody.
“They’ve got distinct personalities,” Jill says. “I didn’t think of them as pets at first, but you get to know them as you raise them.”
The “Urban Chickens” page started years ago, but Jill continues to manage and make posts frequently. The page has gotten more than 450 likes, partially as a result of the recent chicken ordinance.
Chickens and people have co-existed for a long time, Jill says, and the practice of chicken keeping has recently become more popular. As someone who works for the government, she knows how much of an administrative burden it would be to track every hen in town.
“This isn’t just Columbus,” Jill notes. “It’s a trend everywhere. Chicago, Louisville, Indy — there are so many reasons to keep chickens.”
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Many other cities in Indiana, including Carmel, Zionsville, Fort Wayne, Evansville and Bloomington, have passed ordinances in favor of keeping chickens. Lebanon is currently reviewing its city code.
The four ISA Browns continue to poke around in Bill’s backyard. Their lives revolve around searching for and devouring food, and since they’re not picky, it’s a constant positive feedback loop.
“We feed them scraps, leftovers, cooked eggs, whatever we’ve got,” Bill laughs. “We don’t feed them chicken, though. That just feels wrong.”
Although the scope of their activism has grown, the families value their personal growth just as much, along with their expanding roles in the city’s decision-making.
Maneuvering a tricky system and pushing for policy reform can be frustrating, even with a light topic such as chicken keeping. And after a long fight, the Porters and the Sharps can finally say they’ve won.
“It takes being resilient,” Bill says. “Yeah, resilient, just like our chickens.”
