A quaint house sits on the corner of Pascal and Van Bueren. Its lawn is decorated with a beautiful archway, bright colors, and a Little Free Library. Of all the interesting things about this house, it attracts the curious for one main reason: This house is the home of six chickens.

Owners of the house, Phil and Julie Gebbengreen, live in the lovely home with their children and their pet chickens. They have been raising chickens for about 8 years. But according to Julie, the topic is up for debate as the chickens have become so ingrained in their family they can hardly remember not having them.

“There is so much more to a chicken than you can imagine!” Julie said. Of course this was intriguing. What was there to learn from this unique family about chickens?

These chickens survive happily outside all throughout the Minnesota winter, with a space heater brought out on only the coldest of days. Because they have no predators, living in the middle of Saint Paul, the chickens live for 12 years or more.

“I think it’s amazing,” Julie said, “that when you raise a chicken, even though they don’t have parents, they know how to do chicken stuff.” She gestured for me to look, and sure enough, the chickens wandering around the yard were scratching, pecking the ground, and fluffing out their feathers.

The Gebbengreen family originally got chickens so they could teach their children more about the food industry, where food comes from, and how much work it takes for meat to end up on their table. Early on, the family did eat two of their chickens; however, Phil laughed that they weren’t very good. He explained that chicken meat you get from the store comes from very young chickens and their chickens were close to three years old when they were eaten.

“Then my children started getting attached to them,” Julie said. She pointedly looked at her youngest son, Micah, who was stroking a chicken in his lap.

The family decided, however, to keep raising chickens, even though they couldn’t eat them.

“It provides a source of community interest.” Julie explained that people from all over the neighborhood bring their children and grandchildren to come watch the chickens.

At Micah’s school, almost everyone is aware that his family has chickens; however, he said it was “outlandish” to everyone when he was in elementary school.

“At first, we made a rule that we couldn’t name the chickens because we were going to eat them,” Phil said. Now the chickens have names, of a sort. They are called by their breed name, or a shortened version of their breed name.

Julie explained that when you have a small amount of chickens for a long period of time, they show strong personality traits. She shared that each of her chickens is different and has their own likes and dislikes. On hard days she finds it calming to sit in the yard and watch the chickens.

“It’s meditative,” she said, “just to watch them.”

When asked if the chickens ever made too much noise, Phil laughed. “After they lay an egg, sometimes they like to crow to the neighborhood about it.”

As the Gebbengreens and I finished our interview, Phil said, “I recommend it [raising chickens]. Ten years ago it was unimaginable that we would have chickens here, but I’m glad it is becoming more common.” He smiled, explaining his hope for the future. “When you look at pets, you could have a dog, or a cat, or a hamster, or a chicken.”