About Phoenix Tour de Coops
The Phoenix Tour de Coops, organized by the Phoenix Permaculture Guild in response to the burgeoning interest in urban livestock, and rapidly-increasing attendance in their backyard chicken-raising classes, is designed to give visitors insight into the experience of raising urban chickens, ducks, and quail, while inspiring them to start their own backyard coops.
Advocates of raising urban chickens and other poultry often do so in conjunction with edible vegetable gardening and say that the practice provides not only enjoyment, entertainment and ethically-raised eggs, but helps to support their gardens. Chickens help in the garden in the following ways; by controlling pests, providing nutrient rich compostable manure and eating discarded garden scraps.
"The Phoenix Tour de Coops is a fun way for folks to learn about raising chickens, ducks, and other fowl in the urban environment," says Bryan White, a Phoenix Permaculture Guild volunteer "It's really going to open some people's eyes to the possibility of a more sustainable way of living"
There is a nation-wide grassroots level enthusiasm for urban chemical-free gardening and backyard livestock care. Citing large communities of like-minded people in Portland, Seattle, Austin, and Salt Lake City, the Permaculture Guild is thrilled with the overwhelming interest in last year's event and is looking forward to an even larger turn out at this years event.
"People want to know about the options available to them for a more sustainable, more locally-engaged, and more self-sufficient city living, and this tour is a great opportunity for that," suggests Phoenix Permaculture Guild, chicken educator Rachel Bess. "The variety of sites on the Tour show the expressive possibilities of poultry raising and organic gardening”. The Tour is self-guided, so folks can go at their own pace and visit the coops that they're interested in, and interact with fellow neighbors who are participating in hands-on sustainability.