Welcome!

Welcome to Yardbirds Backyard Chickens!  We can help you with nearly anything and everything backyard-chicken-related.  Need a coop and/or chickens?  We can do that.  Need a chicken sitter or coop design consultation?  We can do that.  Need to rehome an unexpected rooster?  Yep, we do that too.

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December 2014 update:  WE ARE BACK IN BUSINESS!  Brawk!  Whoohoo!! 

YBC is proud to announce a new partnership with fellow local biz Green City Growers that will allow us to again offer the great backyard chicken-keeping services we were previously providing AND a few new services as well, including monthly maintenance and a chicken "health insurance" program!  All chicken coop orders - including basic design consultation, just chickens if you already have a coop, and any add-on of the newly offered services - will now be submitted and coordinated through Green City Growers using this link.

I will still be coordinating my own petsitting services separately (and I am now officially insured and bonded!), and plan to have YBC merchandise available through this site sometime in the Spring/Summer of 2015.  Cluck back in for t-shirts, YBC First Aid kits, and more!
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Picture
The Chickeness, Khrysti Smyth, with "Lucifer", one of her Chicken Ambassadors.

Upcoming events and appearances


  • 12 Feb 2015 - YBC Backyard Chickens 101 class at Green City Growers.  My next Backyard Chickens 101 class will be held at the Green City Growers location near Union Square in Somerville.  This class will cover the basics of backyard chicken keeping including coop design, breed selection, feeding and health, and I'll have a few of my Chicken Ambassadors with me for you to meet in person!  Go to the Green City Growers website for more info and to register for the class. (This class is limited to 20 seats, so reserve your spot now!)
  • 18 Feb 2015 - Boston Urban Ag Visioning Steering Committee and Public Meeting on the future of Urban Agriculture in the City of Boston.  9:00 AM to 9:45 AM (EST) at The Seaport Hotel & World Trade Center, 200 Seaport Boulevard, Boston, MA 02210.  Go to the Boston Urban Ag blog for more info.
  • March 2015 - YBC Backyard Chickens 101 class with Agricultural Hall in JP.  Specific date, location, and time TBA.  This class will cover the basics of backyard chicken keeping including coop design, breed selection, feeding and health, and I'll have a few of my Chicken Ambassadors with me for you to meet in person!
  • 18 Mar 2015 - Boston Urban Ag Visioning Steering Committee and Public Meeting on the future of Urban Agriculture in the City of Boston.  Time and location TBA.  Go to the Boston Urban Ag blog for more info.
  • 15 Apr 2015 - Boston Urban Ag Visioning Steering Committee and Public Meeting on the future of Urban Agriculture in the City of Boston.  Time and location TBA.  Go to the Boston Urban Ag blog for more info.
  • 18 Apr 2015 - Get Growing! festival at the Cambridge Winter Farmers Market, held at the Cambridge Community Center at 5 Callender St (off Western Ave).  Open to the public, 10am-2pm.  YBC will have a table with a few Chicken Ambassadors from 12pm-2pm.
  • 2 May 2015 - YBC field trip to the annual "Sharkie" chickenstock.  This year it's in Claremont, NH from 9am-1pm.  This will be a great place to check out birds that local hobbyists and breeders have for sale, as well as get to know the regional chicken-keeping community!
  • 20 May 2015 - Boston Urban Ag Visioning Steering Committee and Public Meeting on the future of Urban Agriculture in the City of Boston.  Time and location TBA.  Go to the Boston Urban Ag blog for more info.
  • 17 Jun 2015 - Boston Urban Ag Visioning Steering Committee and Public Meeting on the future of Urban Agriculture in the City of Boston.  Time and location TBA.  Go to the Boston Urban Ag blog for more info.
  • 15 Jul 2015 - Boston Urban Ag Visioning Steering Committee and Public Meeting on the future of Urban Agriculture in the City of Boston.  Time and location TBA.  Go to the Boston Urban Ag blog for more info.

You say you don't live in Boston?  The Chickeness may be coming soon to a town near you!  If you would like to schedule a seminar or on-site consultation, please contact me and we'll make it happen.  With enough heads-up, I might even be able to get a full coop setup and/or locally-raised birds for you!  (Local to you... I'm not planning to bring chickens on the plane.  Though I could probably make a gloriously terrible movie about it.)

The Chickeness in the news!

THE LIST... thus far.

Jul 2014 - TV news feature with WGBH!  Watch the video on youtube, and the accompanying article on WGBH.com
Nov 2013 - Article on the YBC monthly chicken meetups in Boston.com
June 2013 - Featured in the June issue of Edible Boston
May 2013 - The City of Somerville has released its "C is for Chicken: Chicken Keeping in Somerville, MA" video, which features my flock and a clip from a presentation I gave at City Hall last fall.  Watching this video will be required as part of the permitting process for having chickens in Somerville!
February 2013 - Mentioned in an episode of Greater Somerville about Somerville's Urban Agriculture Initiative and quoted in The Somerville Patch
November 2012 - Somervillebeat.com and the City of Somerville's Urban Ag blog
October 2012 - boston.com
August 2012 - Seedstock.com
May 2012 - The Somerville Patch and the City of Somerville's Urban Ag Blog
Feb 2012 - Dig Boston 
November 2011 - Animal Planet's "Pets 101" (video clip coming soon!)
July 2011 - WBUR, Boston's NPR radio station (and mentioned in a related article)

Here's a Chickeness blog post with a bit more detail. 

And an Honorable Mention, of sorts... Hatched here at my home coop, The Menagerie, former resident "Little Blue" made the back cover of a new book by famed photographer Tamara Staples!  In the grid "outtakes" picture of the book cover, he's in the top row, 2nd from the right.  Yay!  :D

The Chickeness about town.

(In my best TV announcer voice)  Previously, on "The Chickeness"...

  • Dec 2014 - YBC relaunch!  Brawk in business!  Check out more details on The Blog of The Chickeness.
  • Sept 2013
    -- Sept 3rd (Tues), 7-9pm, Yardbirds' monthly backyard chicken meetup at Relish.  Featured topic: "What substrate should I use in my run?".
  • Aug 2013
    -- Aug 6th (Tues), 7-9pm, Yardbirds' inaugural monthly backyard chicken meetup at Relish!  These events will occur on the first Tuesday of each month, and will have a featured presentation and discussion from 7-8pm (generally $5-10 to attend the presentation), then socializing from 8-10pm (free and BYOB!).  This month I and MaryCat (of Relish) will be presenting our vision and goals for this meetup group and community, and soliciting input and involvement from the community to make it all happen.  Our kickoff event also happens to be on The Chickeness' birthday, so come on out and celebrate with us!  Relish is located on Sanborn Ct in Union Square, Somerville, behind The Independent.
  • June 2013
    -- YBC's home coop was a featured stop on the Somerville Garden Club's annual Garden Tour!  We had a potluck lunch/grilling and music happening in our backyard from 11am-4pm. 
    -- YBC's very own Chickeness was part of an urban ag panel focusing on laws and regulations at Relish, Somerville's new Urban Ag Center in Union Square
    -- Roxbury and the Beacon Hill/Chinatown/Downtown/North End/West End/Charlestown neighborhoods had their neighborhood meeting about Boston's urban agriculture rezoning process - please go here for more info on the new Article 89, and here for a pdf flier about the neighborhood meetings happening all over the City of Boston (the flier is also linked at the bottom of the BRA website on Article 89).  Please come out and voice your support for urban agriculture, especially chickens!
    -- Yardbirds' June "Backyard Chickens 101" class at Relish, Somerville's new Urban Ag Center in Union Square (behind The Independent).  The class is $15 - for more info on the June class go here, and check the Relish webpage for upcoming events.
  • March 2013
    -- YBC table at the Somerville Winter Farmers' Market from about 10:30am-2pm.  Open to the public.  Location is the Armory at 191 Highland Ave.  More event info on the Somerville Urban Ag blog.
  • October 2012
    -- Presentation for the Somerville Garden Club.  7-9pm at the Tufts Administration Building (TAB), 167 Holland Street, 2nd floor. Free and open to the public.
    -- DIY demo at the Boston Local Food Festival on the Rose Kennedy Greenway.  Event runs from 11am-5pm, I'm on from 11:15am-12pm on the DIY Program Stage (1).  Free and open to the public, so come on down!
    -- Somerville Community Growing Center's Annual Harvest Festival.  Event is from 1-4pm at the Center's location on Vinyl Ave just off of Summer Ave (just behind the grassy park on the corner).  I'll be there for an hour or two starting at 1pm, and there will be demonstrations and music and general harvest-y mayhem.
  • May 2012
    -- Wake Up the Earth Festival near Stonybrook in Jamaica Plain, MA
    -- Harvard Square MayFair Festival in Harvard Square, Cambridge, M