Photo by Craig FritzTribune

Tribune

One of Chuck O'Herron-Alex's chickens looks into the henhouse. O'Herron-Alex keeps his six chickens at his house south of Nob Hill on Anderson Avenue Southeast. "For me, the main goal is to raise some of my own food," said O'Herron-Alex, who uses the chicken eggs for breakfast.

Photo by Craig FritzTribune

Tribune

Chickens scratch the ground in Chuck O'Herron-Alex's backyard on Anderson Avenue Southeast, just south of Nob Hill. O'Herron-Alex feeds and gives water to his six chickens each morning and collects eggs in the evening.

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If you look closely enough behind the stylish adobe stores and homes in southeast Albuquerque, you'll find a few things that just don't seem to belong in an urban environment: chickens, a bat house and maybe even a few crops.

Chuck O'Herron-Alex, 41, realizes the irony of raising chickens, bats and vegetables in his backyard in the middle of a city. Growing up in suburban Chicago, he never thought he'd end up raising farm animals, period. There just weren't any around, he said.

But city living with animals more likely found on a farm comes with its own sets of rules - and the possibility of diseases like salmonella, experts said.

"It's legal - the guideline that they usually use is three chickens per eighth of an acre," O'Herron-Alex said.

Part of Albuquerque's beauty is that while the city has grown, its rural charm remains - so much so that the desire for rural life infected the former city boy.

"I lived in the South Valley when I first got here and there were all these goats, sheep, llama, horses and cows everywhere," O'Herron-Alex said. "Living down there I got the bug."

He raised chickens in the South Valley, and after moving to his home on Anderson Avenue south of Nob Hill about four years ago, realized he wanted to continue.

The only difference is there are more rules for raising chickens in tighter-packed urban environments like Nob Hill, he said.

"They don't allow roosters in the city limits because of noise, but hens without a rooster will still lay eggs," he said.

O'Herron-Alex knows this not only because he raises chickens, but also because he teaches a class for the city each spring about how to take care of urban chickens.

This season's class was held last month, but he'll be back again next spring.

In the meantime, interested people can always come and talk chickens with him at his garden shop, Veggie Grower Gardens of New Mexico, 3211 Silver Ave. S.E., he said.

Creating a home for chickens in your backyard isn't particularly hard or expensive, he said.

"I'd say set-up costs to get a mature hen is about $14," O'Herron-Alex said. "To build a little chicken house and set up a fenced-in run area would be between $200 to $300, and then, on an ongoing basis, food costs between $8 and $10 a month for six chickens."

In the city, he hides his chicken run, hen house and feed areas behind straw bales. The chickens are quiet. Most of the neighbors probably don't even know they're there, he said.

"For me, the main goal is to raise some of my own food," O'Herron-Alex said. "It just makes sense to incorporate as many things as possible into home food production."

That's something almost unique to Albuquerque. All over the city - in the North and South valleys, Nob Hill, Four Hills and other spots are hidden pockets of rural life that never went away, said Dave Fly, state veterinarian with the Livestock Board.

"When an area grows and it overgrows its rural roots, you still sometimes have these little enclaves that remain," Fly said. "The main thing is you have to make sure they use the size and space accordingly."

Most backyards in Albuquerque are big enough for a few chickens, ducks or rabbits, Fly said.

"If you're going to get into larger animals, like sheep, you need an acre or two," Fly said. "Then you can have a sheep, maybe a couple calves."

When most cities reach a certain population, they try to phase out farm areas. So far, Albuquerque hasn't, which is something the city should be proud of, Fly said.

Still, it's important to remember when raising chickens or ducks that you must watch for diseases like salmonella, said Paul Ettestad, the state public health veterinarian.

"If you do handle chicks or chickens, wash your hands with soap and water a lot," Ettestad said. "You should also supervise kids around them, make sure they wash and don't put their hands in their mouth. And you never want to let them run around inside your house."

The threat of salmonella is perhaps more dangerous to city dwellers than it is to somebody raised on a farm, Fly added.

"In an urban environment people aren't exposed to how to care for these things anymore," Fly said. "They don't know how to handle them, and they don't build up immunity to farm diseases."

Local 4H programs are a great way for youths to learn how to care for chickens and other farm animals, Fly added.

And with a little care and information, fresh-hatched eggs can be in everyone's reach, O'Herron-Alex said.

Each morning, he collects about one egg from each of his six hens - which is the average daily production.

The eggs become breakfast for he and his five roommates, who also grow some crops on the property, he said.

"Most of the eggs that you buy at a regular grocery store come from factory farms, where the chickens are kept in very close quarters and are pumped full of antibiotics," O'Herron-Alex said. "It's a much more humane way to get eggs, to keep some of your own chickens. And healthwise the eggs any home chicken user produces, you know what you're feeding them."

The more tough-skinned urban farmer can even eat the chicken when it's done producing eggs, but O'Herron-Alex says that's not something he'd do.

"I'm not big into slaughtering," he said. "I'm not a vegetarian, but once I've had a chicken for three to six years I don't have the heart to eat it. It's sort of a pet at that point."

Chickens can live for 10 to 12 years, he said. Other than the chickens, O'Herron-Alex doesn't raise any farm animals. He does have a few thousand worms in his kitchen though, he said - for composting.

He and his roommates also learned about threats to bats in the area - and after spotting some up in the trees built a bat house for them, he said.

"It's a bat nursery and it hangs off our roof," O'Herron-Alex said. "We also have a dog and a cat, but they don't bother the other animals. The cat stays indoors and the dog isn't all that interested."