Milwaukee's 'Coopetition' Not Just for the Birds

To celebrate the city ordinance allowing Milwaukee residents to keep up to four chickens, Cream City Hens and Beintween are bringing a "Coopetition" (a design/build contest for chicken coops) home to roost. <strong>Keith Hayes</strong>, founder of Beintween, sounded off on good coop/bad coop, love and lava, and vacuum-formed chicken face masks.<strong><em><br /><br />First, the obvious: the chicken or the egg?</em></strong><br /><br />What came first? The egg. What would I rather have? The chicken, of course&mdash;it makes many an egg, a nice pet and, one day, a delicious sacrificial meal.<strong><em><br /><br />"Cream City Hens" sounds delicious.</em></strong><br /><br />Cream City Hens is Jessica Lane, a brilliant proponent whose efforts allow any Milwaukeean to devil their own fresh raised eggs however which way they may please. Beintween is running the Coopetition.<strong><em><br /><br />Lovacore: geological sample, punk rock genre, or both?</em></strong><br /><br />Both extractions sound reasonable. The core of love is deep. Maybe a geological composite cultivated with time and found beyond a surface?<br /><br />I think you mean locavore, though&mdash;one who eats locally produced food, instead of products moved long distances.<br /><br /><strong><em>Er, right. Of course. Now the contest: Best coop wins. Where can people find out more?</em></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://beintween.ning.com/events/coopetition">http://beintween.ning.com/events/coopetition</a>.<strong><em><br /><br />Good coop/bad coop?</em></strong><br /><br />Good coop&mdash;natural light, ventilation, recycled materials and compost; chickens will eat all kinds of food scrap. Bad coop&mdash;difficult to clean, ruffles feathers or invites raccoons.<strong><em><br /><br />Coopetition honorable mention is cash (for the city's fee) and two chicks. Hot chicks?</em></strong><br /><br />I'm gonna say cute, but we'll leave this to our jury. The top three coops also receive cash prizes&mdash;tentatively, $1,000, $500 and $250. Special thanks to Outpost Natural Foods and Beans &amp; Barley on that one.<strong><em><br /><br />Coops yield hundreds of eggs annually. But aren't potential savings undone by the city's fee?</em></strong><br /><br />Don't sweat the fee; just join the Coopetition. Registration is free, so long as it's in by the March 1 deadline. But figure a healthy hen lays 284 eggs per year, on average. I believe the leghorn breed are the best lay-ers. So a maxed-out coop could provide over 1,100 fresh eggs&mdash;almost two 12-egg cartons per week.&nbsp; Friends with coops have also alleviated lumberyards and coffee harvesters of waste&mdash;wood chips and organic material extracted from coffee beans&mdash;which need to be periodically changed in coops.<strong><br /><br /><em>On a bird-flu paranoia aside: Do Coopetition winners get little white masks?</em></strong><br /><br />We're working on a chicken face mold, for vacuum-formed masks. We'll distribute them as wearable plaques... next year.<strong><em><br /><br />Speaking of next year... Best plucker? Or best omelet?</em></strong><br /><br />Omelet all the way. Nothing brings people together like fresh food.