Cluck, Cluck: It's The Urban Chicken Coop Tour!

Even city folk, it seems, have a hankering for a little bit of country living.

If you’ve been thinking you might like to have the freshest eggs possible — straight from your own hens — consider the fourth annual Urban Coop Tour for ideas, inspiration and advice.

Organized and hosted by the Oakhurst Community Garden Project and Georgia Organics, the tour is offered from noon to 5 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday. For the weekend upon us, 28 coops have been spiffed up and their clucking occupants, or “girls,” fluffed up. In the past, this coop tour has attracted as many as 300 people.

It’s one big tour, but it’s also been sub-divided into three neighborhood tours. One loop takes visitors to nine coops in Grant Park and Ormewood Park; nine coops are also on tour within Virginia-Highland, Morningside, and Inman Park; 10 more coops await you in the Decatur area. A $25 ticket-booklet gives you access to all the coops on the full tour (plus maps, addresses and coop descriptions); admission is good for both days. Kids 12 and younger will be admitted free with adults.

For the Roth family of Ormewood Park — on tour this weekend — keeping chickens is a family affair, and that’s what they most like about it.

“It’s a hobby we all enjoy together,” said David Roth, who built a pretty impressive coop for the eight chickens who moved in about 18 months ago. “We all tend to the duties, from feeding the chickens to collecting the eggs and giving them medicine.”

They sell the eggs for $3.50 a dozen and always have plenty of customers lined up. All the money from the family’s egg sales goes into a college fund for daugher Emery, 10, and son Callen, 8. The kids, Roth said, are eager to see that fund keep growing.

All things considered, Roth said the family’s hens are pretty self-sufficient. They lay four to eight eggs a day, “depending on what mood they’re in.”

The hardest part of owning chickens, he said, is building the coop. His 8-by-8-foot design — large enough for 20 chickens — features a linoleum floor and a tin roof with soundproof panels. There’s even cedar siding, beadboard insulation, crown molding and an electric door.

“I’m a full-time salesman,” Roth said, “but on the side, I like to build stuff.”

The Roths went on the Urban Coop Tour a few years ago and knew they wanted to start keeping chickens themselves. For a number of months, it was a back-and-forth game, with wife Terry saying “Build the damn coop!” and David saying “Order the chickens!” Finally, once she ordered the feathered friends, David knew he had to get into high gear and start building.

If you are thinking at all about keeping live chickens, don’t miss the Morningside coop of Ross Mansbach and his family. At present, the family has a dozen chickens that lay all colors of eggs, even blue and green. They also keep eight ducks.

“I love the tour, because I’m like a chicken evangelist,” he said. “I love to spread the word about the joys of chickens and could talk about them all the time, but when you get people coming around who are really into it, then I’m in my element. I’m thrilled to answer all your questions.

“We’ve been watching this as a growing trend for quite some time and we’ve been offering Chicken 101 classes since 2005,” said Stephanie Van Parys, executive director of the Oakhurst Community Garden Project. “With the economy crashing and the interest people have in more local-sourced, organic foods and in having a more sustainable life in general, keeping chickens has become a really big trend.” Chicken 101 is offered six to eight times a year, Van Parys added, and the class is always a sellout.

On the Decatur leg of the coop tour, Tamara Jones and Lynne Huffer will introduce you to their “girls” named Colette, Lola, Ntozake and Sappho. (Some name their chickens, others do not).

“We absolutely would do it all over again,” Jones said of the chicken-keeping endeavor. She and Huffer also have three cats, “and I can honestly tell you that our chickens are no more trouble than those cats.”

If you go: Urban Coop Tour, noon-5pm Saturday and Sunday (Sept. 24-25). Ticket-booklets ($25) include all info and are available at Garden*Hood, 353 Boulevard SE, 404-880-9848 ;Intown Hardware, 854 N. Highland Ave. NE, 404-874-5619; Intown ACE Hardware, 1404 Scott Boulevard SE, 404-378-6006, and Oakhurst Community Garden, 435 Oakview Road, Decatur, 404-371-1920, www.oakhurstgarden.org, www.urbancooptour.com.