The Research Experience

 Well today is the first day of very active research and it was great. Through Nick Pickrell (a contact we acquired through our professor, Jamie) my group and I learned about an urban farmer's meeting at Rainbow Mennonite Church where we found an underground group of chicken urban farmers. Our timing could not be more perfect as this meeting only happens ONCE A YEAR. While there Jessie, Eli, and myself met an array of people.

Firstly, we met Teresa Kelly of Cultivate KC. A lovely, energetic lady with a passion for living green. She lead and organized the chicken farming portion of this annual event. She conducted a discussion of poultry farming and addressed issues from city codes to chicken behavioral problems. She has 16 hens and has agreed to show us her mini farm.

From this meeting we also met Bev (not so sure of her last name at the moment, but I'll get back to you). Bev is a woman from Wyandotte county who has been forced by city law to get rid of her chickens. She is an avid farmer of fruits and veggies and is currently fighting city hall to have an urban chicken farm on her property. She also has agreed to sit down with us for an interview. Update to come.

We were also able to obtain a meeting with a young couple, Brian and Andrea, and their family. Andrea is a stay at home mom and is just the kind of person we were hoping to get in touch with. I am curious to find out why she chooses to have an urban chicken farm as a part of her family and how it benefits them.

These are also quite a few more contacts that we managed to get our hands on, but these are the most promising.


Following our visit to this farmer's meeting Jessie and I headed over to Cherith Brook to chat with Nick. Cherith Brooke, a shelter for the homeless, maintains a free range urban chicken farm to help feed the homeless and from Nick tells us is quite beneficial.

Interview #1:DOWN. Quite a few more to go :)


                                    An image of the Cherith Brook urban chicken farm