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Bartram retired in 2008 from working as an occupational therapist and started to have an interest in chicken keeping after reading about the hobby in a magazine. She said she didn’t know much about chicken keeping but decided to adopt four chicks that eventually became like family pets to her.
“Once you get to know the chickens, you see they have these really neat and individual personalities,” she said. “I think people are often really surprised at how smart, clean and beautiful they are.”
After 10 years of having chickens, Bartram said she has learned a lot about them—especially how important they’ve become in her life.
She now has eight chickens, and one rooster named “Jacques Roosteau,” that are mostly adopted from either animal control or other members of the group who could no longer care for their chickens.
One of her chickens recently died and she said it was heartbreaking. She has a little cemetery at her home and memorial service to remember each pet that passes away.
She was a volunteer with Williamsburg Master Gardeners when she first bought her chickens and she found herself being referred to for questions about chickens fairly often.
She said she wanted to provide the best resources for individuals starting to keep chickens, so she started looking to other chicken keepers for tips and information until she realized in 2010 that it would be easier to simply have a group that met in person to discuss their flocks.
“We were shocked to discover most of the people in the group weren’t legally allowed to own chickens,” she said.
For example, a woman in the group wasn’t allowed to have chickens on her property in York County at the time because it was zoned differently than rural residential, Bartram said. Despite having multiple acres and the ability to own horses, because they aren’t classified as agricultural animals, there was still a block on owning chickens.
Eventually the group worked with York County to amend the ordinance in 2011, according to the PeCK website, so now residents can own chickens on all single-family residences, depending on lot size.
The group has also helped to change ordinances in James City County, Hampton, Gloucester and other localities along the Peninsula, Bartram said.
She said the goal was never to change local laws but simply provide a place where local chicken keepers can discuss their hobby and, most importantly, learn fact-based information.
“It’s not necessarily that I want people to own more chickens,” she said. “It’s just that if they do, I want to give them research-based information because you can find some wacky stuff online.”
In addition to a regular newsletter that Bartram complies for an email list of 500, she also provides a lending library for people to learn more about the practice of caring for chickens. She said a lot of people will buy chickens because they want the eggs or read about benefits to their garden, but they don’t realize what they’re getting into.
While there are various Facebook groups for chicken keepers on the Peninsula, Bartram felt it was important to provide a place for physical interaction because that’s how she learned best. When she was first starting to raise her chickens, she had visited a friend in Maryland who showed Bartram her chicken coop and taught her about raising chickens.
Bartram said the group hosts a “coop tour” each year at various member’s coops where they can talk about them with the group and teach about things they wish they had or hadn’t done while starting out.
Bartram also continuously updates the group’s website with links to local laws regarding chicken keeping, information about local veterinarians that care for chickens, resources for artists whose subjects are chickens and any other information she thinks would be helpful.
But most importantly, Bartram said she just wants people to be informed before purchasing chickens.
“I encourage people not to impulse-buy baby chicks,” she said. “They’re great pets but they’re living creatures and need to be cared for.”
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Post time: Mar-23-2020
