On Saturday, May 17, 2014, we’ll be selling t-shirts with a new design to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the tour. Shirts will be available at the 4 ticket sites: Urban Ministries/Coop Carnival (1390 Capital Blvd.), Whole Foods Raleigh (3540 Wade Ave.), Whole Foods North Raleigh (8710 Six Forks Rd.) and Whole Foods Cary (102 New Waverly Pl.). Shirts will be $20 for Adult sizes and $15 for Youth sizes.

All proceeds from the t-shirt sales benefit Urban Ministries of Wake County.

We are in need of volunteers for the Tour D’Coop event on Saturday, May 17, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m to assist with ticket sales, the carnival and food collection. The volunteer duties and roles are divided into shifts and locations at the various ticket sites and carnival. The locations are Urban Ministries at 1390 Capital Boulevard, Whole Foods Wade Ave, Whole Foods North Raleigh and Whole Foods Cary. Additional information will be provided if you are interested in volunteering.
There will be a short information meeting on Wednesday, May 7 at 6 pm at Urban Ministries at 1390 Capital Boulevard in Raleigh. We will review roles, logistics and answer any questions. Please plan to attend if you are able.
Here is a detailed list of the volunteer opportunities and shifts for the event:
Tour D’Coop Volunteer Opportunities:
Ticket Sales: Assist with ticket sales and collection
Shift 1: 9:30-12:30
Shift 2: 12:15-3:30
Carnival: Assist with vendors, traffic flow, set-up, clean-up and other various duties
Set-up shift: Start 8:00 am
Clean-up shift: Start 2:30 pm
All others: Start 9:15 am
Food Pick-up Assistance: Assist in collecting cans from various ticket sale points
Shift 1: 12:45-3:30
Shift 2: 3:30-5:00
All of the proceeds from these events will go towards Urban Ministries’ efforts to provide food, shelter, and medical care for 24,000 of our neighbors in need each year.
Interested volunteers should contact, Martha Browning at 919-256-2187 or mbrowning@urbanmin.org. Thank you for all of your help.

WHEN: Saturday, May 31, 9:30 a.m. OR Sunday, June 1, 2:00 p.m. OR Monday, June 2, 6:30 p.m.
WHERE: Room 159, Kilgore Hall, NC State University
COST: A fee of $10 per person will be requested. (No pre-registration required.)
This presentation by long-time chicken-keeper Bob Davis will confirm that keeping backyard chickens is both desirable and attainable. Chickens produce eggs, are wonderful pets, and provide an earth connection for their owners. Details of their care will be covered, including sources of birds, housing, feeding, and health.
Bob will present the ‘Chicken Keeping 101’ talk on three separate dates and times. It is the same talk each time, so you need only attend one. The talk lasts about 2.5 hours, depending on questions, with time for further questions at the end.
Free parking is available in the Brooks Lot on the corner of Brooks and Hillsborough. Kilgore Hall is directly across Hillsborough Street from the parking lot (bamboo structures in front). Room 159 is located in the center of the building on the first floor. Please try to arrive a little early, so that we can start on time. Doors to the building are locked shortly after the class begins.

It seems like winter will never end this year, but we were granted a rare Spring-like day last week. I furiously caught up on neglected yard work, and then rewarded myself by sitting down in my favorite yard chair to catch up on another seasonal pursuit–chicken-watching! My chickens seemed to be enjoying the brilliant sun, too, so I released them from the small pen surrounding their coop, and watched as they shot into a larger run, jockeying for position to spot the first insect or microscopic, green shoot.
One hen, in particular, caught my eye. She was poking about near an area where I had mended a hole in the fence last fall. Winter’s ravages had dealt a blow to my hasty repair, and left a tiny opening. Driven by greed or curiosity, she eyed the hole and explored it with her beak. Slowly, she stuck her beak through, and then her neck, moving in and out, in and out, first tentatively, then over and over with more excitement until finally–her “Eureka” moment–she bravely pushed through the opening and into the yard and freedom. She scratched furiously at the new terrain and was immediately rewarded with a juicy worm, cold-stunned and easy to snatch, the likes of which she hadn’t seen in five months.
The other chickens set up a chorus of clucks and agitated chatter as they ran along the fence line–convicts left behind. One by one, in turn, each discovered the small opening, repeated her actions, and made their escape, though none were rewarded with a worm. Some were tentative, some more bold and quick to act. One poor girl lingered for a good five minutes, unable to summon the courage or smarts to accomplish a quick get-away, but eventually even she made her way through the forbidden portal.
Watching my chickens accomplish what appeared to me to be a fairly complex task– involving exploration, group communication, and–dare I say it–thought–got me to thinking for the umpteenth time about chicken intelligence. Human-kind has been pretty slow to explore the intelligence of domestic poultry, and this has led us down a path of increasing acceptance of possibly inhumane methods of poultry production, with no hard and fast data supporting whether chickens suffer in confinement facilities, aka ‘factory farms.’ Research studies support what my chickens just showed me–that chickens can learn by observation. And while it is the rare chicken that will garner a starring role in Hollywood, research is beginning to uncover the complexity of their communications and behavior. (For a great, easy-to-read introduction to the studies being conducted on chicken behavior, check out ‘About Chickens’ on the Humane Society International website).
Interestingly, when let out into the pen the next day, the hen who garnered the prized worm immediately ran to the weak area in the fence, where she searched in vain for the hole (which I had fixed). The others–who hadn’t found a tasty reward on the previous day’s adventure–ignored her actions as if to say, “ho hum…nothing of interest out there.” Was her interest due to instinct? Intelligence? Was it random? At this point, science doesn’t completely know the answers to these questions, but until we are sure, I believe chickens–and all animals–deserve our respect, and a chance to live a comfortable life in a reasonably natural environment, eating the types of foods their species has been eating for millennia. In other words, they deserve the chance to behave like, well….chickens.

ⁱNicol CJ and Pope SJ. 1992. Effects of social learning on the acquisition of discriminatory key pecking in hens. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 30(4):293-6.
ⁱⁱAs viewed at: www.hsi.org/assets/pdfs/about_chickens.pdf

We’re excited to announce that the April 4 First Friday Artwalk at Tipping Paint Gallery at 311 West Martin Street, Raleigh NC, will be a special celebration of “all things chicken”.
“Eggistentialism” will kick off the 10th annual Tour D’ Coop. The Tour is an entertaining way to educate the public about raising chickens and urban farming while raising non-perishable food and money for Urban Ministries of Wake County.
The Eggistentialism reception on April 4 will be from 6 pm to 9 pm and feature:
� an exhibition of chicken-related art
� a deviled egg cook-off
� egg-related refreshments
� art raffles
� fun activities for the whole family
The chicken-related art exhibit will be on display until April 26. For additional information or to participate in the exhibit, please contact the gallery at info@TippingPaintGallery.com.

Colorful, eclectic, and original, Tipping Paint Gallery features works ranging from classically inspired to contemporary. Located in the heart of Downtown Raleigh’s Warehouse District, the Gallery’s bright and inviting space is a place where the art takes center stage. tippingpaintgallery.com
Started in 2005 as a way for a few neighbors to show off their hens and coops, the Henside the Beltline Tour D’ Coop has grown to a one-day garden tour that encompasses 20 coops and thousands of visitors. Coop owners and the tour organizers volunteer their time to promote back yard poultry and urban farming. This year’s Tour will be Saturday, May 17 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, rain or shine. tourdcoop.com
The tour benefits Urban Ministries of Wake County, which provides life-saving food, housing and medical care to more than 24,000 low-income Wake County residents each year, including 11,000 children. Urban Ministries also provides health and nutrition education, access to fresh produce, crisis counseling and job counseling to promote healthy living and self-sufficiency. And Urban Ministries engages the community through volunteerism (1,500 active volunteers!) and advocacy. Beyond feeding, we nourish. Beyond healing, healthy lives. Beyond shelter, a path home. urbanmin.org

For media inquiries, please contact:
Tipping Paint Gallery
Vicki Rees
vickirees@tippingpaintartists.com
Tour d’Coop
Greta Modlin
gretamodlin@yahoo.com
Urban Ministries
Martha Browning
mbrowning@urbanmin.org

Author and illustrator Jan Brett will be at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh and a few of our Tour D’Coop celebrity chickens will be on hand to help her talk about her upcoming children’s book Cinders: A Chicken Cinderella. You are invited to meet Jan and hear her read from the book. You can even purchase a copy of the book and have it signed that day. Several Tour hens will be on hand and ready to be petted and photographed, so bring your cameras!

Jan Brett
Cinders: A Chicken Cinderella
Saturday, November 23rd, 5:00 pm
Quail Ridge Books, Wade Avenue
The reading and event are free
Learn more at JanBrett.com »

WHEN: Saturday, Oct. 19, 9:30 a.m. OR Sunday, Oct. 20, 2:00 p.m. OR Monday, Oct. 21, 6:30 p.m.
WHERE: Room 159, Kilgore Hall, NC State University
COST: A fee of $10 per person will be requested. (No pre-registration required.)
This presentation by long-time chicken-keeper Bob Davis will confirm that keeping backyard chickens is both desirable and attainable. Chickens produce eggs, are wonderful pets, and provide an earth connection for their owners. Details of their care will be covered, including sources of birds, housing, feeding, and health.
Bob will present the ‘Chicken Keeping 101’ talk on three separate dates and times. It is the same talk each time, so you need only attend one. The talk lasts about 2.5 hours, depending on questions, with time for further questions at the end.
Free parking is available in the Brooks Lot on the corner of Brooks and Hillsborough. Kilgore Hall is directly across Hillsborough Street from the parking lot (bamboo structures in front). Room 159 is located in the center of the building on the first floor. Please try to arrive a little early, so that we can start on time. Doors to the building are locked shortly after the class begins.

This was a guest post on Downtown Dame by Cynthia Deis
The day was sunny and warm with a small chance of showers, and I was ready to go. I was wearing comfortable shoes and a chicken-themed tee shirt and had a giant iced coffee at hand. I had plotted my route the night before, ambitiously hoping to get to 10 of the 23 locations. The Tour D’Coop was here!
As a chicken-keeper, I have been both a tour stop and a tourist on the Coop Tour. Both sides of the coin offer their pleasures. When our coop is on the tour, I have the ‘excuse’ of preparing for the visitors.
I can justify very long hours in the garden and fuss over the state of flowerbeds and coop decor to an extent I don’t usually allow myself.
Read more on downtowndame.com »

On our site we now have an order form available for Tour D’Coop t-shirts from the past 3 years. These tees are a great way to remember the tour year round. Your payment will go directly to Urban Ministries of Wake County via PayPal. All major credit cards are accepted. Limited supplies available, so order today!
Order Tour D’Coop t-shirts »

The stars of the Tour D’Coop are the chickens, coops and the gardens, but there will be plenty of other attractions on Saturday.�
Rebus Works, the site of Coop #20, is host to The Saturday Market. This weekly, year-round market features local, organic farmers, bakers, the Lo-Mo Produce truck and a rotating mix mix of food trucks. In honor of the Tour D’Coop, the Saturday Market this week will feature local artists of many kinds. Look for hand made items like chicken shirts from Joelle Collins (pictured) and more.�
At Coop #9, chow down on some Eastern NC chicken barbecue�from the food truck�Chick-N-Que. This coop will also feature�the coop exhibit from NCSU design students. The designs were done as part of a class assignment and are quite original and eye-catching. They were designed to be portable/shippable, as well as beautiful.
At Coop #8,�local hatchery Little Birdie Chicken Farm and Hatchery will have about 6 chicks on display and will be available for part of the day to answer questions.�
If you’re interested in bees, be sure to check out Coops #4, #5 and�#13.
At the ticket sites, buy Tour t-shirts, ranging in price from $8 to $20. We have new t-shirts for the 2013 tour, as well as vintage shirts from past tours. We’re also offering a “family package” of 2 adult, 2 children, for $50. This year’s shirts are “grass green” with white lettering, all sizes except the kid x-small, which is grey. We DO take credit cards.
Are you excited yet? Make your donation online to get your ticket�today! Tickets will be available online through 2 p.m. Friday. After that, you can get one at the ticket sites on Saturday.