I have chicken envy. A young couple that we know moved to the ‘country’, which is to say they abandoned suburbia for a cute cottage in the middle of a couple of fields in Western New Jersey. Anything ‘outdoors’ is alien to the young man, and his sweet wife has gently introduced him to the joy of camping and fishing — he went not so gently into that peaceful night, but he survived.

Getting into the spirit of this new rural lifestyle, he met several people through his local, retail business who had chickens and various livestock for sale. His wife had been a little down, so he decided it would be entertaining to bring home a chicken as a gift. So, with little preparation, he got an adult chicken and had it put in a large cardboard box (he wasn’t going to touch it or anything) and brought it home to his unsuspecting wife. Here’s the hilarious video of Cindy Meets the first Chicken.

Of course since then, they’ve both become chicken experts and have built a substantial chicken house and yard and have a few new feathered friends to add to their growing family, which by the way also now includes their adorable 4-month old son.

So, while I don’t have any chickens yet and am reasonably certain my neighbor would have a stroke if I did, I’m convinced that someday soon, I’ll manage to do the backyard chicken thing.

I was thrilled to receive the Complete Idiot’s Guide to Raising Chickens to start my education. I’ve been corresponding with the author, JD Belanger and he has agreed to come on the radio show tonight and talk about the expanding backyard chicken craze and the basics of what we need to know to get started and have a fun and healthy experience with our chickens.

Like Jen and I JD is a publisher, having started Countryside magazine in 1969. He also founded sheep! magazine, Dairy Goat Guide, and Backyard Poultry — which is now the leading hobby poultry journal.