City chickens may be a new thing now, but in the city of my childhood, Toledo, Ohio, there was nothing unusual about raising backyard hens, roosters or even rabbits for that matter. Times then, as now, were lean and tight, and people were just beginning to rise up out of the dire straits of near poverty; so raising chickens for their eggs or a Sunday dinner, or rabbits for Saturday night stew, helped nourish many families.