Gail DamerowCluck, cluck, cluck. Bwaak!  These are not sounds I
expect to hear on a stroll in my North Oakland, Calif.
neighborhood — the usual soundtrack is more like thumping bass,
sirens, and the rattle of fast-food paper bags. And yet chickens
are pecking in backyards on practically every block, in
converted sheds and rickety but raccoon-proof enclosures.  Where
I live, it’s mostly a matter of economics: chicken feed is
cheap, and fresh, tasty orange-yolked eggs are expensive. Around
the country, though, it’s safe to say that keeping chickens has
never enjoyed as much cachet as it does now. Some cities are
more chicken-friendly than others: the Municode Library website
can usually tell you whether your city allows chickens, how many
and what sex; just find your hometown and search its code for
“chickens.”   If these tiny-brained feathered friends are the
Boston terriers of their decade, then Gail Damerow is poultry’s
Cesar Millan. In the last 40 years, she’s raised dozens of
different breeds and written B