Chicken raising and other rudeness

What is it about us that makes us "suburbanites?" Surely, it's more than our proximity to Chicago. It's a way of life we share, a set of expectations for our homes, our lawns, our neighbors.

Bringing the barnyard to the backyard

They lose sleep to crack-of-dawn cackles. They catch grief from neighbors who assumed the block was a chicken-free zone. Health - Home - Chicken - Poultry - Cooking

Local history farms take visitors back

Chickens of a breed that hasn't been common on Illinois farms for half a century, running loose on a gravel driveway. Unpainted wood on buildings erected before we took California away from Mexico . Watching a woman in Depression-era garb cooking supper on a wood-burning stove. Seeing a farmer dressed for the era of President Polk shoveling manure and grinding feed.

Group sues over prairie chickens

A Colorado-based environmental group has gone to court to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to place the lesser prairie chicken on the federal endangered species list.

County says man’s junk isn’t treasure

For 40 years, Albert Madrid has quietly occupied his now-defunct chicken ranch on Nancy Avenue in Cherry Valley. Tucked in behind a fence hidden by shrubbery are the 94-year-old World War II veteran’s four acres.