Retirement Age

I feel kind of bad for my boyfriend Elliot's chickens. At three years old, they're already over the hill.

The hens - large, fluffy black and brown Austalorps and Rhode Island Reds - are not laying as many eggs as they used to. Unfortunately for them, retiring from their job as egg-laying machines doesn't mean leasing a condo in Tampa and joining a bridge club.

"I don't think they'll make it another season," says Elliot. "I haven't decided what to do with them yet. I've butchered them before, and that might be their fate."

Elliott's chickens live a traditional country life - literally down a dirt road with no name - and they'll most likely die a traditional country death… on the chopping block. Out here, slaughtering animals just comes with the territory.

But what about those cosmopolitan chickens?

Big City Birds

Backyard chickens have become the unofficial mascot of the urban farming movement. As the locavore trend continues to grow, so does the popularity of backyard hens. And so explains the popularity of Agrarian, an Indianapolis boutique the caters to urban homesteaders.

"People are so out of touch with their food and where it comes from," says Ann Collins, the co-owner of Agrarian. "I feel it's a way to gain control back and to learn the old ways of how to actually grow something and cultivate it in your own backyard."

"We sold 861 chicks last year," says Andrew Brake, another co-owner of Agrarian. "That's a lot of chicks to sell!"

Brake is the founder of Nap Town Chickens, a chicken advocacy group based in Indianapolis. He raises chickens himself, builds elaborate chicken coops and counsels people who want to start raising their own chicken flocks.

He says urban farming and chickens are a natural fit for each other. Unlike vegetable farming, raising chickens grants almost immediate satisfaction. Chicken farmers reap the bounty all year round - those beautiful, brown eggs. "Vegetable gardening is very time consuming, and you only get the reward more or less once a year," he says.

But unfortunately, nothing last forever.

To Name Or Not To Name

Hens can live for up to ten years, but they only lay eggs for about five. Traditionally, that's when most birds end up on the chopping block.

But in the cities, it's more complicated. Even if first-time farmers are comfortable raising chickens, some of them, like Ann Collins, might not be comfortable killing them. "My grandmother definitely made a stew out of them," she says. "I however, have a totally different view on that."

Collins sees her chickens as both food providers and pets. "All my chickens have names, and my favorite one is Nina Simone. I just couldn't put her on a chopping block, I couldn't do it."

For her business partner Brake, it's a different story. He slaughters his own chickens, so he doesn't like to get into the habit of naming his birds. It just makes the inevitable killing harder.

Circle Of Life

What options does an urban farmer have when it comes to dealing with over-the-hill chickens?

First, an intrepid farmer can deal with the birds himself. Many cities allow urban farmers to slaughter their own chickens, granted they are quick, humane and quiet. Brake himself uses a trusty machete, but there's a whole plethora of accouterment de boucherie that can help an urban chicken farmer take care of his birds humanely.

Brake mentioned a contraption called a killing cone, which resembles an upside-down traffic cone. The bird's head goes through the bottom, and well… you can figure out the rest.

For the squeamish, there are local meat processors that can take care of chickens for a small fee.

Then, there's the free-range option. Simply leave the door to a chicken coop open, a wait for an owl or hawk to take care of the work. Collins and Brake say lots of people use this method.

Remember my boyfriend Elliot, out in the country? He's thinking of trying this free-range option himself. Two of his roosters have started fighting and he's thinking about letting them loose in the forest.