In defense of backyard chickens

The author of your anti-chicken editorial apparently does not know that hens can lay eggs without having any noisy roosters around. I didn't know this myself until my daughter and her husband installed four hens in their Chicago yard. The city allows people to keep up to four chickens.

Chickens make amusing pets, create less mess than a dog and keep the household well-supplied with fresh eggs that really do taste better than commercial eggs. And you can eat them soft-boiled, poached or over easy, or stirred raw into eggnog or Caesar salad without fear of salmonella.

Ernest Hemingway famously described suburban Oak Park as a place of broad lawns and narrow minds. Now it appears that Chicago may have narrower lawns but broader minds with regard to chickens than many suburbs do.

Richard Frisbie

Arlington Heights