Pets that pitch in at meal times

She built the chicken coop out of scrap wood, and tucked it behind the lilac hedge.

Her five chickens — four Silver-Laced Wyandottes and a Wyandotte/Araucana cross — each lay an egg every day, or every other day.

“We love it,” she said. “When I get too many I make a frittata or a quiche.”

Her hens are free to wander around the yard.

“Mine are eating bugs, grass — pretty much anything,” she said. “They’re always scratching.”

That’s in addition to their regular chicken feed.

Scratching is when they scrape their feet across the ground, a habit Mowe said can be tough on the landscaping.

Mowe’s chicken eggs have bright yellow yolks, which is influenced by their food.

“It’s because of what they’re eating — insects, grass,” said Jim Hermes,  poultry specialist with the Oregon State University extension service in Corvallis.

That yellow color comes from the pigment xanthophyll.

“It darkens up the color, but there’s no nutritive value plus or minus — it’s just a color change,” Hermes said. “Egg yolks can be very pale, light yellow, to orange.”

He said in commercial eggs, the yolk color can be darkened by adding marigold petal extract to the chicken feed.

As for the shells, he said “the typical color is brown.”

The color varies by the type of chicken. Blue eggs, for instance, come from Araucana and Ameraucana chickens.

The prevalance of white-shelled eggs at the store, Hermes said, “is all consumer-preference driven.”

The most popular commercial chicken is the Single Comb Leghorn, which lays white eggs.

“She lays the most eggs, and is a small bird so she doesn’t eat much,” Hermes said.

On the topic of feed, Hermes said deciding to have your own chickens shouldn’t be a decision based on cost.

“You’re in a losing battle,” he said.

Large producers, he said, buy feed in “train-car lots” at a few cents per pound.

Feed for a small flock costs from 30 to 50 cents per pound.

“And organic feed — we can double that,” he said.

So what’s the advantage of having your own chickens?

“If you want to know where your food’s coming from, and want the fun of having chickens in the backyard, this is the way to do that,” he said.

As for salmonella, there are 2,000 types and Hermes said the one that can infect poultry is enteritidis.

“Which is a rarity, by the way,” he said. “We rarely see it in backyard flocks.”

It works like this: salmonella “can harbor in the ovary of the hen,” he said, which carries the potential that the eggs will be infected.

Proper preparation is the key.

“The main issue is if we’re consuming under-cooked eggs,” Hermes said.

As for the health of eggs, he said the yolk is a very good nutrient source.

“The only nutrient you won’t find in an egg yolk is vitamin C,” he said. “Virtually everything we need is in an egg.”

The issue of cholesterol has changed in recent years.

“Cholesterol isn’t the bad guy we thought it was 40 years ago,” he said.

Dana and Blake Marlia, who have a flock of six chickens, like the variety that comes with raising different breeds.

They have six chickens.

“The eggs are amazing — different sizes, different shells,” Dana said.

They bought their first coop, and soon realized its design didn’t fit their needs.

“So we made a chicken coop from scratch,” she said.

It is a triangular shape, with a big door allowing easy access for cleaning. It is tucked into the corner of a fenced area, where the chickens stay except for when they roam the yard in the evening.

A wire roof was a later addition.

“We were feeding all the neighborhood birds,” she said.

They put in a heat lamp during the winter, because chickens need daylight and warmth to lay eggs.

“You definitely have to think about winter,” she said.

The Marlias make it a family project, and 5-year-old Paige helps feed the chickens and collect eggs (1-year-old Landon just gets to watch for now).

Paige’s “pet” chicken is named Teka, a hen that doesn’t mind being carried and cradled.

“It’s so much fun,” Dana said. “These are happy chickens.”

The Baker City ordinance prohibiting large animals in certain areas doesn’t apply to chickens.

However, chicken owners do have to comply with rules regarding noise and odors.

Police Chief Wyn Lohner said the city has required residents to get rid of especially raucous roosters, for instance.