Roll up! roll up! For a hen house tour

The USA is perhaps, more than the UK, a nation which is ever vigilant of ‘keeping up with the Joneses’. And now poultry farming suburbanites are able to wander around the neighbours backyards to see how the chicken keeping other half live, inspecting their egg laying operations.

The WSJ reports there’s the Funky Coop Tour in Texas, the Tour De Coops in Portland and the Mad City Chickens Coop Tour in Madison.

For some this will be a chance to improve one’s flock, and for others it will be testing the waters before getting a flock, but I think the majority will be voyeurs just wanting to sticky beak in fancier gardens than they could ever construct.

For example…”Jody Noble-Choder opened her sprawling backyard–with its fish pond, winding stone path and meditation platform nestled at the edge of the Allegheny River–to about 400 curious visitors.”

Sounds plush.

Though it doesn’t seem the trend has caught on in the UK yet but it’s only a matter of time if 700,000 Britons are keeping them in their gardens.