July 9, 2011: My friends and I (and a lot of other Seattleites!) checked out what our critter-keeping neighbors are up to. Bees, chickens, goat, ducks, and edible gardens.
Our first stop on the Seattle Tilth Urban Farm Tour was in the Eastlake area, a modern house with a sleek modern chicken coop to match.
They also kept bees, who were stereotypically busy, buzzing around.
At the next house, the chickens have their own address and a green roof! Check out Seattle Seedling, the blog of Stacy, the chickens' keeper.
Next we moved on to Three Bees City Farm.
Three Bees has both ducks and chickens, who get along so well the chickens have moved into the duck house.
Three Bees is also home to Maple, who was extremely pregnant at the time of the tour.
And here's Willow, who keeps Maple company, sunning herself next to the barn.
Red Star is run by gentlemen farmer Troy and Michael. In addition to raising their own chickens, they also sell chickens and can be hired to help you create your own coop. They focus on using reclaimed and recycled materials.
Some of their beautiful chickens...
We learned that faux eggs are often used in nest boxes to help encourage laying there. Most farmers just use platic eggs, but Red Star likes to keep it fancy with marble.
No bats yet live in the recently installed bat box (it can take a while for them to find it).
But they have plenty of worms (and a beloved label maker).
Next, we moved to BJ's Duck Eggs, home to these critters and a tidy garden shed.
My last stop for the day was Mezza Luna Farms, with its New Orleans French Quarter-style coop.