Deep Eddy Community Garden Chicken Co-op

When Covid hit in the spring of 2020 I was fortunate that my employer paid my regular wage while only requiring me to come into the office two days a week. As a relatively new blogger I threw myself into growing my site and expanding what I wrote about. I connected with Juliet through an online chicken group and we worked on a case study together about her flock being hit by aspergillosis and trichomonosis. She also introduced me to her ex-husband who I was able to collaborate with to write a profile about the mental health benefits of keeping chickens.

At some point, she mentioned belonging to a community garden that had chickens. Every few months I nudged her towards writing about that experience. I love the cooperative nature of sharing a flock and thought it would be an interesting topic to share here, especially for folks that might not be prepared for the time constraints or full-time responsibility of keeping chickens of their own.

I’m glad to say Juliet rose to the challenge and here’s her story.

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I joined the Deep Eddy Community Garden in 2003 and am now one of the oldest members of the garden, with maybe only one or two others having been here longer than me. Founded in the late 1960s, it’s the longest running community garden in Austin, Texas, located near downtown on the banks of the old Colorado River.  After they constructed Longhorn Dam in 1960, they started calling the river a lake and it’s currently known as Ladybird Lake, after First Lady, Ladybird Johnson. Being located on the river, we are blessed with beautiful sandy loam river alluvium. The garden is situated on an acre of land and contains about 40 individual garden plots. It was easy to become a member when I joined and there were three different plots to choose from. Now there is a three-year waitlist! 

Since I’ve been part of the garden, we’ve had four different Master Gardeners as our Coordinator.  During the management of our third Garden Coordinator in 2012, we introduced chickens.  At that time, the Austin Nature Center was managing the city-owned land that the garden sits on. They had to approve the construction of the coop and run and we had to create some bylaws and standard operating procedures for how we would take care of the flock. Currently, the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department and our Coordinator oversee the management of our garden. I’ve seen very little oversight on the part of the City. 

Just as we pay annual dues and contribute volunteer hours to meet our garden membership requirements, we have similar requirements for the chicken co-op although not everyone in the garden also participates in the chicken co-op.  It’s an optional activity with up to 14 members at any given time. Currently we have 12 members.

Members of the chicken co-op can choose full or half membership shares. Full shares have weekly chicken care duties and egg collection. Half shares have alternating weekly chicken care and egg collection.  I have a full share and Tuesdays are my chicken duty day.  We also have a Chicken Coordinator for the group who creates the schedule, provides orientation to new members, and schedules work days and meetings.  My first experience in taking care of chickens began as part of the chicken co-op in 2012.  Later, in 2020 during the pandemic, I was renting a house with a large backyard.  My landlord gave me permission to build a chicken coop and a garden. I still maintained my connections with the Deep Eddy Garden though.  

Austin has been a booming and growing city for at least three or four decades.  When I first joined the garden, I lived near enough to walk to it.  It’s located in the Tarrytown neighborhood, a predominantly very wealthy neighborhood. As a single mom with two kids, I was able to find affordable rental housing so that my kids could attend the better schools in the neighborhood. In 2014 my landlord raised my rent and I had to move four miles across town to a more affordable neighborhood.  Just four years later, rents increased again and I had to move to yet another less expensive neighborhood on the east side, which is where I was living during the pandemic.  In 2021 my landlord raised my rent again and, very sadly, I had to re-home all my chickens.  I have been unable to afford to rent a house since that time so have been living in apartments.  Having my garden plot and membership in the chicken co-op has been one of the most stable, grounding and reassuring things in my life, when my housing has been unstable due to the ever-increasing rent prices.  The garden and chickens have helped me to maintain my sanity.

Being a member of the chicken co-op from 2012 to 2020 did not prepare me for the realities of keeping my own chickens though. I made the mistake of buying my first birds from a disreputable breeder and experienced a lot of heartache as they all died from various illnesses. I finally had success by incubating some hatching eggs and raising them from chicks.  The chickens at the garden co-op have had relatively fewer health problems.  In fact, we have one hen that is 12 years old! We have experienced most of the common chicken problems though, including fowl pox, flystrike, injuries, and a few with reproductive tract issues.  

One of the things I learned quickly about having my own backyard chickens is that they do NOT like being kept in their coop all day. The community coop is 25’ x 10’ and accommodates up to thirty birds. We currently have 25.

Originally the Austin Nature Center said that the garden chickens could only be in their run if someone was physically present to watch them.  Our rules required that they be let out for at least one hour each day with the member who was assigned that duty for the day. I typically let the chickens out much longer than one hour but I know many members who were busy might not let them out at all or for a very short time.  Since I’ve had my own chickens, I have been advocating for letting the chickens out into the run unattended.  Many people support this and will come in the morning before work to let them out and return in the evening to put them away.  I’ve been strongly advocating for an automatic chicken door since September 2023 when I found out another city of Austin managed community garden and chicken co-op utilizes one.  We finally put it to a vote and we are installing the door this weekend!  I see this as a huge victory for the chickens and it’s going to make our lives much easier as well.  

Being part of the chicken co-op can be very frustrating.  I have seen the “culture” of the group change quite a bit over time.  There have always been folks in the group who see them more as livestock and free eggs.  Our group has increasingly shifted towards perceiving them as pets. For instance, we do not have anything in our guidelines about vet care or responsibilities for taking care of sick chickens. We also lack an alternative hospice or infirmary.  Historically a few of us have taken the sick ones home in a dog crate to nurse them back to health.  Those of us who want to pay out of our own pockets have also taken them to the vet.  Only a couple of us feel confident enough to administer meds to chickens and take care of the sick ones, so that responsibility has fallen largely on a few of us.  

Since the beginning we all voted to feed the chickens organic, soy-free grain.  The Deep Eddy Garden is an all-organic garden and we felt that was more in alignment with our philosophy.  Last year we experienced significant increases in feed costs, so had a vote this year to see if we would continue to feed organic and raise the prices (double) or start feeding them a more affordable option.  The group voted in favor of the organic feed and so the membership has increased from $50 a half share to $100.  

Even with the frustration of trying to get a group of people to all cooperate and communicate effectively, having the chicken co-op has definitely been a blessing. I can’t imagine my life without chickens. They are such a joy!  I love getting to know all of their individual personalities and I love taking care of them.  

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Thanks to Juliet Morgan for sharing her story and photos, used with permission.