Holy Cluck – That was one heck of a coop tour!
It happened – Saturday May 21, 2022
Registrations hit 1225 registered tourists this year with about 22 coops ready to show their coops off by the time Coop Day appeared!
Below are some shared photos and comments from the tour:
Hello,
I participated in my first Silicon Valley Tour de Coop this
year & would like to share my photos w/everyone. Here’s
a link to my album.
https://link.shutterfly.com/pocNnYvcfqb
I have 3 Lavender Ameraucanas named Lilac, Orchid &
Violet (my LOV chickens!) in an Omlet coop/run in Santa
Clara. I finally got them April 2021 after wanting to get
chickens for over a decade. I wanted to host this year
but decided to tour instead.
One suggestion – is it possible for future hosts to have a
hosts-only day where we can visit each other’s coops?
Perhaps on Sun after the Sat event, we could have the
Palo Alto loop host from 9-11AM, the Sunnyvale/Mtn
View/Los Altos loop host from 11-1PM & the Los Gatos
/San Jose loop host from 1-3PM?
Another suggestion – is it possible to ask if people who
sign up are willing to share their name/contact info
w/others? I met Mason & Emily from Sunnyvale on the
tour (they biked to several of the same locations) &
would like to link up w/them. If you can share my email
w/them, I’d appreciate it. They were interested in getting
a coop & I would like to show them mine. Thank you
if you can help connect us!
P.S. I would love to help out w/admin or photos for future
tours if you want / need volunteers.
Thanks to you & everyone else for all your work behind
the scenes! It’s much appreciated!
May a.k.a. Ms. Purple!!
Cooptacular
It was an epic adventure typical in its untypicalness and ever so befitting of a true Susannah Heather Platonic Girl Date (PGD). The best laid plans (pun intended) for a cooptacular bike ride were interrupted first by Heather’s back tire going flat at chicken coop #2 (in which we walked the bikes back 1.5 miles to our cars, and Heather drove 2.4 miles to Mikes Bikes for a fix while I made friends with crows at the Gunn parking lot), and than by Heather’s chain falling off (in which a gentleman going to a Gunn sporting event stopped and fixed it without skipping a beat), followed by Heather’s FRONT tire making a rather dramatic transition from full to flat not 1/2 a mile from coop #2 thus ending the biking portion of the day for Heather. But, because we would not be thwarted by fate, I biked back to the cars, brought the jeep to Heather, found a way to fit both Heather and her bike inside, drove to our 3rd and final coop, did not run out of gas, drove back to Heather’s car and proceeded to our ultimate unplanned reward of exquisite Brussels sprouts, corn fritters with honey, and an adult beverage at Dinah’s Poolside Restaurant. Today was about the kindness of strangers, perseverance, problem solving, and embracing the joy of unexpected detours that lead to some marvelous discoveries; namely the Barron park donkeys which neither Heather or I somehow knew existed. On our third Silicon Valley Tour de Coop, Heather and I got our fill of chickens, relished getting repeatedly acquainted with a particular section of new to us bike trail, and delighted in our special brand of mile a minute banter.
We look forward to next year!!
What a fantastic turnout yesterday. Final count at our place was 104 people. We had snacks and coffee and went through 3 full loaves of Olive Cheese Bread fresh out of the oven. Music and chicken chatting. Tons of bikes filled the driveway at times. We had 10 people still in our backyard at 4:00. Totally fine. It was great. Every single person was so polite and kind.
Hello,
The event this year was wonderful!
We appreciate so much the wonderful, generous coop owners that opened up their backyards. We got enough tips we think this is the year to start a coop!
How to improve it? Please can it last a weekend…some Sat. and some Sunday?
Silicon Valley - Tour De Coop 