Two Cute 'Chicks' Call Regent Square Home

Ella tap dances awkwardly on the tile floor of Animal Nature in Regent Square with her tiny chicken legs, not yet adapted to her diaper like her older ‘sister’ Cinder.  

Once she gets her footing, the two hens take off and roam the organic pet store like a playground — meandering between bags of dog chow, wandering dangerously close to the open door and nipping at the cat, Mumpford’s, nose.

“Everyone is up for adoption except the cat and the chickens,” said Rachel Lamory, the co-owner of the organic pet store Animal Nature.

Cinder and Ella are silkies, a type of small asian chicken with fluffy feathers that lay eggs half the size of a normal chicken.

They aren’t the only pet chickens roaming about in Pittsburgh. Forest Hills passed an ordinance last week allowing its residents to keep chickens and bees. Now citizens of Forest Hills can have up to four chickens in residential areas.  

The City of Pittsburgh, Fox Chapel and Mt. Lebanon also allow residents to have chickens, according to Jana Thompson at Pittsburgh Pro-Poultry People, an urban chicken farming advocate group.

Thompson said that though they don’t have an absolute count of the coops in the city an estimate of 250-300 is “not unreasonable.”

“If you care about where your food comes from, having chickens is a no brainer,” Lamory said, adding that their waste makes great compost and they eat insects out of the yard to maintain the grass.

Though chickens are useful pets, potential owners should be aware that chickens don't lay eggs their entire lives, Lamory said. 

As for what to do with a hen when it's past its prime, Lamory said most chicken owners continue loving their pets even after they hit "chicken menopause."

"They name them. They take them to the vet when they're sick," she said. 

Lamory has three years of experience with chickens under her belt and six full-size hens roaming freely in her backyard at home.

Most chickens have an outside coop with space to run, but Cinder and Ella live exclusively indoors at the shop. Lamory does take them outside to forage every now and then. She has collars with leashes to take the hens into nearby Frick Park to peck on dandelions.

While Cinder and Ella are “perfectly happy,” with their life at the shop, Lamory stresses that ideally chickens should be kept outside with space to roam.

When Lamory picks her up, Cinder, who was previously cooing constantly, falls completely quiet and content in her arms.