Cluck, Cluck: It's the Urban Chicken Coop Tour!

Even city folk, it seems, have a hankering for a little bit of country living.

If you’ve been thinking you might like to have the freshest eggs possible — straight from your own hens — consider the fourth annual Urban Coop Tour for ideas, inspiration and advice.

Organized and hosted by the Oakhurst Community Garden Project and Georgia Organics, the tour is offered from noon to 5 p.m. this Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 24 and 25.

For the tour, 28 coops have been spiffed up and their clucking occupants, or “girls,” fluffed up. In the past, this coop tour has attracted as many as 300 people.

It’s one big tour, but it’s also been sub-divided into three neighborhood tours. One loop takes visitors to nine coops in Virginia-Highland, Morningside, and Inman Park; 10 coops are on the tour in the Decatur area; nine more are open for visitors in Grant Park and Ormewood Park.

A $25 ticket-booklet gives you access to all the coops on the full tour (plus maps, addresses and coop descriptions); admission is good for both days. Kids 12 and younger will be admitted free with adults.

“We’ve been watching this as a growing trend for quite some time and we’ve been offering Chicken 101 classes since 2005,” said Stephanie Van Parys, executive director of the Oakhurst Community Garden Project. “With the economy crashing and the interest people have in more local-sourced, organic foods and in having a more sustainable life in general, keeping chickens has become a really big trend.”

Chicken 101 is offered six to eight times a year, Van Parys added, and the class is always a sellout.

Her own family has kept chickens for about 10 years. They had nine but are now down to five, because four were recently destroyed by a hawk. This can happen, and it’s one of the things to ask coop owners about while on the tour.

Van Parys said the joys of owning chickens far outweigh the negatives.

"I wanted more control over some of our food sources," she said. "I didn’t want my eggs coming from Wisconsin or California. I use the chickens’ [droppings] for fertilizer. Also, instead of throwing food away, from oatmeal and rice to meat scraps, we feed it to our chickens."

But above all: “I love the eggs. I do love fresh eggs,” she said.

The eggs that come from the 12 chickens in the Morningside coop of Ross Mansbach and his family are definitely exciting.

"Some lay white eggs, but others light brown, some chocolate brown," Mansbach said. “Then there’s one we call the Easter-egg chick because it lays some blue eggs and some green eggs. Others lay various shades of brown — it all depends on the breed. The different colors make it kind of fun for us."

Mansbach, who has kept chickens since 2008, will be on tour this weekend. His impressive chicken coop was also a hit on last year’s Urban Coop Tour.

"I love the tour, because I’m like a chicken evangelist," he said. "I love to spread the word about the joys of chickens and could talk about them all the time, but when you get people coming around who are really into it, then I’m in my element. I’m thrilled to answer all your questions."

The dozen chickens are his family’s second flock. On average, each one lays two eggs every three days. There are also eight ducks who don’t produce as fast, but “their eggs are said to be the secret ingredient in prize-winning baking recipes,” Mansbach said.

"I buy egg cartons by the hundred and take a six-pack everywhere I go — to neighbors, to work, you name it," Mansbach said. "Everyone likes eggs, it makes them happy. And these eggs could not be any fresher."

The Oakhurst Community Garden folks recommend trying to get around to as many coops as you can this weekend if you are considering adding chickens and a coop to your yard. Also: take the Chicken 101 class.

That’s what Tamara Jones and Lynne Huffer did, before embarking on the coop adventure earlier this year. The 14-by-24-foot coop maintained by Jones and Huffer is among the 10 coops on the Decatur coop loop this weekend.

They own four chickens and love the fresh eggs produced — one per day per hen — by Colette, Lola, Ntozake and Sappho. (Some name their chickens, others do not).

"We absolutely would do it all over again,” Jones said of the chicken-keeping endeavor. She and Huffer also have three cats, “and I can honestly tell you that our chickens are no more trouble than those cats.”

If you go: Urban Coop Tour, noon-5pm Saturday and Sunday (Sept. 24-25). Ticket-booklets ($25) include all info and are available at Intown Hardware, 854 N. Highland Ave. NE, 404-874-5619; Garden*Hood, 353 Boulevard SE, 404-880-9848; Intown ACE Hardware, 1404 Scott Boulevard SE, 404-378-6006, and Oakhurst Community Garden, 435 Oakview Road, Decatur, 404-371-1920, www.oakhurstgarden.org, www.urbancooptour.com