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How Did New York's Urban Chickens Survive Sandy? With Cats
By
Garth Johnston
Published Nov 12, 2012
Modified Nov 12, 2012
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Nov 12, 2012
Modified Nov 12, 2012
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We don't know how, but amidst everything else that happened during Hurricane Sandy we totally forgot that Brooklynites are into urban chicken farming these days. OMG, did the chickens survive the storm? The Times's real estate column The Appraisal is ON IT. And yes, at least some of them did survive. But now they need new digs!
In particular, the Times looks at four chickens owned by 27-year-old Hannah Kirshner of Red Hook, which survived the storm because two very nice women saved them as their coop floated away in the surge. See, before leaving Red Hook Kirshner had locked them in the top section of their coop, assuming the waters wouldn't rise above four feet. But it did. Luckily Leisah Swenson and Monica Byrne, who own the restaurant Home/Made as well as the lot where the chickens were living in, were in their apartment above their restaurant during the storm and are "big suckers." So, along with another neighbor, they "yanked the chickens out of their coop, which was bobbing away at a 45-degree angle, and carried them by their feet into their apartment."
After that the chickens spent the next two days with the couple and their seven cats (can't make this up, kids) before being reunited with their owner. Only problem, Kirshner's apartment was ruined in the storm. So now she needs to find a new place to call homee—preferably near space where she can keep her hens "Chicki Minaj, Hillary Chicken, Black Betty and Salt Hen Peppa, who is also called Cookie Dough."
"My chickens bring me a lot of joy, but I know we have to be realistic," Kirshner told the Times of the hard apartment hunt ahead. But she's still got hope, because "amazing, hilarious things still happen." Y'know, like cats, chickens and people living in peace in an apartment in Red Hook together. Best of luck Hannah!
Tagged
brooklyn
chickens
frankenstorm
hurricane sandy
nytimes
real estate
red hook
urban chickens
Garth Johnston
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