A few months ago I was contacted by Jon Kamp, a reporter from the Wall Street Journal who was researching a story loosely related to chickens; in that conversation, I mentioned the problem with finding qualified healthcare providers for backyard chickens, which ultimately resulted in several more interviews on the subject, a visit to my farm and an excellent article, which appeared on the front page of this week’s Wall Street Journal! Many thanks to Mr. Kamp for his interest in this subject, which as helped raise awareness of the need for  trained medical professionals to care for backyard chickens.

Two Serama chicks (far left) and three Polish Crested chicks. Big week for them in which they had their first chance to play outside and moved into the Big Girl Coop! They’re using an EcoGlow brooder inside a large wire dog crate.

In other news this week: I met with Zoning Department staff members at the request of the Zoning Commission to discuss tweaking my proposed text amendment to the zoning regulations that I argued to the Commission last week. While I’d like to report that the meeting went as well as the public hearing, I left with the sense that the zoning staff members are not as open to “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”  regulations as the Commission seemed to be. My attorney and I have a plan. I’ll keep you posted.

I received a phone call from the vet at the poultry pathology lab regarding Brutus’ necropsy. While a final report was expected last week, they needed to perform more tissue testing this week. The vet indicated the final report would be issued this afternoon, but as of the writing of this post, there are 20 minutes left to their business day and I have received nothing. Phone calls have been placed and messages left. I’ll keep you posted.