Few Austinites are flocking to city’s $75 chicken coop rebate
further removals said that move came without real input or notice to faculty or students, though UT officials said the various departments were notified.
About 213,000 items — 40 percent of the fine arts collection — remain in the Doty Fine Arts
Jean El Harim has prepared a feast to reward her hens. Crouching low among “the ladies,” El Harim places an assortment of wheatberries, chickweed and henbit at their feet.
The five hens descend on the food in a flash of iridescent black feathers.
“Aren’t they beautiful?” asks El Harim, gesturing to five tawny brown eggs, each nestled in a small wicker basket.
The hens are Australorps, a breed known as dependable egg-layers.
El Harim got her flock last May, a few weeks after the city of Austin launched a rebate program to encourage residents to own backyard chickens. Nearly a year after the program started, she is among just 14 people who have received the rebate, up to $75, and are now keeping hens in city-subsidized coops.
By comparison, in fiscal year 2017, 628 people received city rebates for purchasing home composting bins, and 5,217 rebates have been issued since that program started. Both initiatives are designed to reduce waste going to landfills. The city says an average chicken eats about 7 pounds of food scraps a month.
More than 300 people have attended city-sponsored, hourlong chicken-keeping classes — a requirement of the program — organized by Austin Resource Recovery.
Susanne Harm, a spokeswoman for Austin Resource Recovery, said the department expects participation in the chicken coop rebate program to increase this spring.
“With the rebate program as a whole, both the compost and chicken coop rebate, we are looking to penetrate about 10 percent of households in Austin,” Harm said.
That would mean more than 20,000 households would participate in one or both programs by 2021, the city’s target.
Michelle Hernandez, a dedicated chicken keeper and organizer of the annual Funky Chicken Coop Tour and of a local backyard poultry meetup, was a major proponent of the rebate. The Resource Recovery Department and the city’s Office of Sustainability approved it.
Hernandez is one of two contractors who teach the chicken-keeping classes, which are held at libraries, bookstores and farmers markets.
“Chickens are built to be zerowaste heroes, transforming household waste into valuable compost for lawn and garden,” said Hernandez, who has raised chickens for the past 10 years.
A recent class at Recycled Reads, the Austin Public Library’s usedbook store on Burnet Road, drew more than 20 would-be chicken owners. The class covered topics such as city ordinances, protecting hens from predators and how to choose the right breed. Hernandez thanked the class for being “part of the change” before promoting the benefits