Yard Birds
The Lives and Times of America’s Urban Chickens

Philip Levy (Author)

9780813949659

Paperback / softback, published 18 April 2023

264 pages, 24 b&w illustrations
21.9 x 14.4 x 0.6 cm, 0.165 kg

“This is a cultural phenomenon worth the telling, written with a clear and engaging authorial voice. It is erudite, sophisticated, witty, and accessible.” - Garry Marvin, author of Wolf

“Over five millennia, chickens have emerged as one of the most important domesticated animals in the development of civilization. Levy is an outstanding writer, and deserves praise for his deep appreciation for the most important bird in our lives, and his ability to examine what it means, often in cultural anthropological terms, to live intimately and in intimate proximity to people with this animal--an urban chicken. A really lovely book.” - Jeffrey Greene, author of The Golden-Bristled Boar: Last Ferocious Beast of the Forest

In 2009, the New Yorker declared chickens the "it bird" and heralded "the return of the backyard chicken." This honour occurred as, a host of American cities were changing their laws to allow chickens in residents’ backyards. Philip Levy, a sometime chicken keeper himself, mixes cultural history with husbandry to chronicle the weird and wonderful story of Americans’ urban chickens. From the streets of Brooklyn to council chambers in Albany to the beat of Key West’s Chicken Nuisance Patrol, yard birds are an important and growing part of American city life.

Part history, part travelogue, and part reportage, Yard Birds takes the reader on a tour-de-force journey across America, past and present, to profile its urban chickens housed in luxury coops or dying at yearly rituals. What emerges is a compelling picture of city chickens that can both serve as hipster status symbols and guarantee that the families keeping them have at least something to eat. Levy’s smart and entertaining investigation of the contemporary urban chicken craze reveals that poultry flocks were historically an integral part of America’s urban spaces; chickens have simply returned home now, some to very fancy roosts.

• Introduction: Kiev'
  s Story
• 1. "But... this is a city": Albany'
  s Yard Birds
• 2. Hen Fever
• 3. Confinement and Banishment
• 4. Hipsters, Humor, Fashion, and Chickens
• 5. Touring the Coops
• 6. The Art of Food Security
• 7. Who Killed Colonel?
• 8. A Blessing in the Book of Life
• 9. Viruses Get the Last Word
• Coda: Here to Stay