‘Save our chickens’

Jacob Porter with the family’s chickens in Bayou Gauche where he and his brothers are learning how to care for them.

Council supports family keeping their feathered friends in Bayou Gauche

Describing them as “dogs with feathers” that act more like pets, St. Charles Parish Councilman Billy Woodruff immediately sought a way for the Porter family to keep their chickens when a property owner opposed them.

Although the Porters have had their hens nearly six years, they recently learned they needed a permit to have “exotic” animals in St. Charles Parish and that it required the approval of their neighbors to get it. It’s not a typical requirement compared to other parishes, but they immediately sought to make it right. Then they learned about the opposition.

When it came up at last Monday’s council meeting, Woodruff proposed a solution – reduce the requirement of approval from all owners within 300 feet of the residence in the subdivision to only those adjoining their residence in Kerry’s Pointe Subdivision. Council members, apparently swayed by the Porter children’s chicken stories, approved it 7 to 2.

Also, all three boys were wearing bright yellow T-shirts saying, “Save Our Chickens.”

“We set out to get four, but ended up with 5 chickens because one was free,” Jackson, the oldest son, told the council. “It had one eye pecked out as a chick by another chicken and that’s why we named her Hope.”

Described as the protective hen in the small flock, she fended off Paws the cat when she tried to “mess with the chickens.”

Joseph, second oldest son, told the story of Love the chicken.

“She’s a runt,” he said. “She only lays one egg a week sized like a pecan and pale blue, but she works so hard. Sometimes you just need a little love.”

Five-year-old Jacob attempted to add, “Thank you for letting me keep my pet chickens because I love them so much.”

Jacob Porter holds one of the hens among the 10 allowed at their Bayou Gauche residence.

Woodruff, who had visited the Porters to see what all the clucking was about, needed no convincing about why he wanted to help these residents in his district. With its natural beauty and scenic waterways, the area was the ideal place to have these feathered friends, as well as live their homesteading dream.

“You look at these chickens, they’re dogs with feathers,” he said. “They run up to these kids and they hold them.”

For father Jason Porter, this is what life is about in Bayou Gauche.

When they came to the area six years ago, Porter and his wife, Tammy, were drawn to St. Charles Parish’s excellent public schools, quality of life, leadership and programs. They welcomed living in the natural surroundings and lifestyle of the area yet still be only 30 minutes from New Orleans.

“Those things really lined up with our values,” he said.

In Christmas of their first year there, a friend of Tammy’s gave them her backyard chicken coop, an old kid’s playhouse fitted with roosts and laying boxes. The makeshift coop soon evolved into a permanent one, and they went from five to nine hens. They had two Americauna chickens, otherwise known as “Easter egg chickens” with a bluish-green egg, two Buff Orphingtons,  two Silver Lace and two Barred Rock, which all lay brown eggs. The one-eyed boss hen, Hope, was a Plymouth White Rock, but recently died of old age.

“The kids were all in with it,” Porter said of raising chickens. “They love animals, and the many joys associated with caring for them.”

As hoped, they embraced a lifestyle where their pets included chickens, as well as dogs, cats and at various times, just about anything swimming in Bayou Gauche.

“All those values that come with caring for God’s creatures, as well as fishing, hunting, and raising a garden—the boys love it all,” Porter said.

The sons, particularly Jacob, insists on being the one who gathers the eggs and cares for the chickens.

They eat a lot of eggs and love it. [pullquote]“You look at these chickens, they’re dogs with feathers. They run up to these kids and they hold them.” – Councilman Billy Woodruff[/pullquote]

“The boys carry them around in the yard, take them down the swingset slide, and give them rides on the tricycle,” said Tammy, their mother.  “We’ve even had them dressed up before when a friend gave us a protective saddle for the girls after one of our new hens turned out to be a ‘he’ and wrestled a little too aggressively with the others. We quickly found a new home for him elsewhere, as we didn’t want to risk disturbing the community with his early morning serenades.”

Their love of these feathered friends, as well as homesteading, is certainly timely.

Gov. John Bel Edwards erected a chicken coop on the property of the Louisiana governor’s mansion in Baton Rouge. There’s also various interest and advocacy groups, such as www.chickenlivesmatter, abounding with chicken stories, too.

Chickens are apparently not the birdbrains of public perception.

“They are really an entertaining species, and the boys learned that chickens are descendants of the dinosaurs,” Porter said. “Their behavior very much mimics their velociraptor ancestors, in the way they flock together and, if they see a threat, they work together. Chickens really do have structure and hierarchy.”

The hoped-for lessons of homesteading are a benefit to the entire family, including living off the land and experiencing what many families want in good values and genuine living.

“It showed us what an awesome world we live in and of life in Bayou Gauche,” Porter said of their chicken campaign. “This has enabled us to know our community better. We did a grassroots effort in gaining support for our request, and it enabled us to get to better know our neighbors, and the fantastic people that live around us.”

 

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