Adopt a chicken in Etterbeek

One chicken can process about 50kg of household garbage annually. An increasing number of municipalities across Belgium are therefore offering free chickens to their residents in order to shrink the amount of organic waste that ends up in the garbage bin. And now Etterbeek is to become the first municipality in Brussels to join the trend, reports brusselnieuws.be.

City Chickens (Poules urbaines/Gemeentekippen) is a project launched by the Brussels Minister for Sustainable Development, Marie-Rose Geuten. She was inspired by a similar initiative in Mouscron, and several long-standing initiatives across Flanders.

To recruit chicken keepers, Geuten has set up two information sessions for residents at the end of January. "Three families have already let us know that they would love to do it," Geuten told brusselnieuws.be.

Initially, the municipality will give 20 families two chickens and a chicken coop. The families will also receive ongoing support for two years, including advice on nutrition and proper care of the animals.

The pilot project in Etterbeek can count on a €9,000 grant from the Brussels-Captial Region to launch the intiative.