FOR THE BIRDS
B’klyn nabe squawking mad over chicken coop
A PARK SLOPE community garden has ruffled the feathers of dozens of residents after welcoming eight new chickens into its urban chicken coop. More than 160 angry neighbors have signed a petition to boot the chickens. They hate the noise and say the hens attract rodents.
They’re so clucking mad a repre
senta- tive from City Councilman Steve Levin’s office will act as a facilitator during a “chicken meeting” on Sunday to resolve the issue. At the gathering, locals will have the opportunity to “meet the hens” and to speak with “a rat expert who will tell us if hens attract rats,” according to a flyer.
“It’s not healthy,” said Ernesto Cruz 69, who lives on the same block as the Warren Street St. Marks Community Garden. “The rats will eat the food of the chickens.”
Hens are allowed inside city limits; roosters are not.
“It's cutting into my sleep!” cried Hannibal Smith, 29, who lives two doors from the garden.
The man who built the elevated coop countered that it was rat-proof.
“The issues have been blown out of proportion given the scale of the project,” Ryan Reineck, 25, said. “(The chickens) are not smelly, they’re not noisy and they don’t encourage a rodent population.”
Some said the creatures, which will return to their home on Governors Island in April, are a valuable teaching tool for the neighborhood’s hordes of children.
“I think it’s good for the kids,” said Rachel Smeard, 39. “It teaches them about the life cycle.”