My Pet Made My Breakfast

Meet Paige, the granddaughter of Pat Upton, Workman Publishing's Rights Director. Paige and her family recently moved from Connecticut to Tennessee, and Paige has decided to honor her new home by raising chickens. In her mother's words,

"Paige became interested because there's a pretty vocal urban chicken movement in town. They're not technically legal in our neighborhood (which makes it even more fun) but growing your own eggs has become chic around here just like growing your own vegetables. We're getting a bumper sticker that says "My Pet Made My Breakfast."

We know a few people who've got chickens and love them as pets. We went to visit one friend who keeps five and he's the one who recommended the Storey book as "being the best." She also read about it on one her chicken blogs, backyardchickens.com. On Sunday we went to Barnes and Noble and bought two additional books. We've built a good collection already!

Her chickens of choice are Easter Eggers — not a true breed but a hybrid. They're known for being playful, friendly, and lay eggs that are blue, green, and sometimes pink. She's found a woman on-line about two hours from here who will sell Paige some Easter Eggers (for $4 each) as soon as our coop arrives. Needless to say, we can't wait.

This would not have happened if her two sisters hadn’t gone off to college and left her all alone. We (Paige, her father and her mother) all trekked to Kentucky last weekend to attend the World Chicken Festival in the birthplace of Col. Saunders and ate lunch at the original KFC. Yes, we ate chicken.

This is all part of our Yankees-move-to-Tennessee fun."

Check with your town or city to see if keeping chickens is included in the zoning laws — and remember, Chick Days are a'comin'!

— Pat Upton, Rights Director for Workman Publishing, which is Storey's parent company