It appears Neil and Anna Stephens were running an egg-selling operation that was complete with chickens and chicken coops in their back yard at their home on Newland Street in Jackson. They are currently at the center of a controversy as they leased several Northeast Jackson homes to the Oxford House. The Stephenses kept chickens in their back yard and sold eggs under the label "Urban Eggs". They even advertised the eggs for sale online. Social South published a story positively gushing about Urban Eggs in February:
My friend Anna Stephens is one of my favorite people in the world for a hundred reasons! We’ve known each other since childhood. We’ve eaten Mexican food together on a regular basis for years now, played basketball both with and against each other, and she even let me live tweet from her account at her wedding! I love to laugh at her about these ugly shoes she wears all the time and she laughs at me about how tall and uncoordinated I am. I also love to laugh at her about the fact that she and her husband have about 15 chickens living in her backyard. But even more, I love that she sells me eggs that these chickens lay. We’ve got a good friendship going!
So why does Anna have chickens in her backyard? Well, that’s a pretty awesome story!
One day about two years ago, Anna’s friend Kathleen ordered her a box of baby chickens as a fun little prank. I think Kathleen was thinking, “It’s going to be hilarious when Anna comes home from work to a shipment of live baby chickens on her doorstep. She’s gonna freak!” But I’m not sure Kathleen thought Anna would actually keep the chickens, much less name them, build a complex for them in her backyard, and start the business we know today as Urban Eggs! Yes, Anna and her husband Neal have a chicken’s paradise built in the backyard of their Jackson home for Caramel, Yoli, Yanni, Runt, and the rest of the UE gang to live and lay.
When Anna and Neal decided to keep the chickens, my first thought was, “Wow, your neighbors are going to hate you. Don’t roosters get super loud at sunrise every morning?” I know I wouldn’t be too fond of a 6 a.m. wake up call every morning from my neighbor’s chickens!
But Anna said she and Neal made the difficult decision to give away all the men to keep the neighborhood peace. I believe that was a great decision. Now, they have a gang of gals that roam around the yard, lay colorful eggs every day, and eat Anna and Neal’s gourmet leftovers. (I swear these chickens eat better food than I do… The Stephenses are master chefs!)
Because these chickens have a whole yard in which to roam, and because they eat homemade lasagna and eggplant parmesan in addition to their special chicken feed, they lay the most delicious (and beautiful!) eggs ever! I’ve always heard that happy chickens lay better eggs, and Anna and Neal’s brood have proven that to be very true. Urban Eggs eggs come in all different egg colors and they definitely taste superior to your average grocery store eggs!
In addition to being prettier and tastier than everyday eggs, they come packaged in a lovely gray egg carton with a stamp of Anna’s moped on the front! Buddy, the name we’ve given this moped, is Anna’s signature transportation source, so her mom had a stamp made that they could use on the cartons to set them apart. Very clever and cute!
To get your own carton of Urban Eggs eggs, all you have to do is email urbaneggsjackson@gmail.com and tell Anna how many you want! She’ll coordinate with you on getting the eggs to you. And to keep up with the Urban Eggs fun on a daily basis, you can like them on Facebook or follow them on Instagram!
I hope you get a chance to order and enjoy some Urban Eggs in the very near future!
Laurel Donahoo is a regular contributor on The Daily Social as the Social Bee. For more Social Bee posts, click here. Rest of article
Cute, heartwarming story. However, a check of city records reveals that the business may not have a license to operate from the city of Jackson. The business appears to have no permits. A Jackson ordinance also states:
602.02.2 Uses Which May Be Permitted As Special Exceptions:3. Dairying and animal husbandry on sites of not less than one (1) acre provided such use does not constitute a nuisance or health hazard. The maximum number of animals per acre shall be two (2) and when
A. the indoor and/or outdoor enclosures are located at the rear of residential structures with minimum setback of one hundred (100) ft. from all adjacent property linesB. upon the granting of the Special Exception, all types of enclosures, bufferings and the plan for the removal of wastes must be approved through the Site Plan Review processC. prior to the granting and renewal of the Special Exception, a notarized letter from a licensed veterinarian verifying the health status and current shot record of the animal(s) is submitted
The couple also does not appear to have Urban Eggs registered as a company with the Secretary of State. The Department of Agriculture must issue a permit before such an operation can take place. No such permit was issued by the department.
70 comments:
KF- Hoooah! Great reporting!
Don't let up on these fools until they move to Mexico
Bet they also aren't paying any taxes on any of their proceeds since apparently rules don't apply to them at all.
The Chicken Ranch- wonder if this operation resembles the TX house where chickens were not the main attraction. After all if she will run an unlicensed halfway house and chicken ranch, what will she not do?
Dance a little side step. Is the gub-ner gonna shut Ms. Mona down?? Could be a hard candy Christmas for Anna and Neal.
Did that post say $5.00 for a dozen eggs????
I have chickens and I can assure you that she is not getting rich off of this enterprise. I would be impressed if she was breaking even. Chickens are fun and a hobby, if her neighbors are cool with it, so be it.
When Anna and Neal decided to keep the chickens, my first thought was, “Wow, your neighbors are going to hate you. Don’t roosters get super loud at sunrise every morning?”
But then Anna said, "Like I give a f*ck! Think about who you're talking to, here. Those plebes will be lucky if I don't take daddy's money and turn this place into a hog rendering plant when we move to Bridgewater!"
And I thought, "That's so Anna!" Ha ha!
Now....where to build our factory? How about Fantasy-Land?
The guy is a darn used car salesman. This keeps betting better and better! You gotta admit its kinda funny......
How can Kingfish be contacted by phone or a direct email address?
OK - This is not a matter of profitability. This is a matter of chicken feces in a residential neighborhood is NOT a good thing. Flies, flies and more flies unless the area is cleaned and maintained frequently. Let's get real people.
She'll have plenty of time to raise chickens and open unsupervised halfway houses once JA cans her ass at the end of the school year.
Remember, they got Al Capone for failing to pay his income taxes.
Only in the "City with Soul" can you raise chickens and nobody complains. Yet you dare to discuss poor water quality, raw sewage in all the wrong places, delapidated homes, run down crime infested apartments, strip clubs, and high crime. I won't even mention the educational system.
Those eggs look awesome!
Chickens may be fun and a hobby for you,2:45, but apparently they are an unlicensed, unregistered, illegal business for Anna and her husband.
This is a matter of chicken feces in a residential neighborhood is NOT a good thing.
Yep.......I raised chickens when I was a wee lad. They are nasty, nasty, nasty......
Pales in comparison to the discovery that public school tax dollars are being spent on the DORE scam.
AETNA: "There is insufficient evidence to support the effectiveness of the Dore program for the treatment of patients with ADHD".
DORE scam: Dore can help people overcome their ADHD symptoms by tackling the root cause of their difficulties, the brain’s ‘skill center’ or cerebellum.
Shit meet fan.
$5 a dozen? You mean $4 per half dozen and endorsed by Jackson Academy football.
Out dated link but,
http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/jackson-mississippi-chicken-ordinance
Surprised our ordinance allows roosters. But, in most cities you can have up to a certain number of chickens for laying eggs and eating if you don't get to attached to them. Atlanta allows up to 25 with no roosters. Buddy of mine sells them to all his neighbors. And yes, $5 for fresh eggs locally sourced is not a bad deal. This is really much ado about nothing. More of a hobby than a business. Seriously, this is nitpicking. Stick the Oxford House. That's the real problem.
Bet they also aren't paying any taxes on any of their proceeds since apparently rules don't apply to them at all.
Use Form 3949-A to report if you suspect or know of an indiviual or business that is not reporting income. Send the form to:
Internal Revenue Service
Fresno, CA 93888
Considering what we've seen from Neal and Anna so far the odds that they did not report any of the egg income on their 2014 return are very good. Enclosing a print version of this JJ report and other documentation is more than enough to stimulate an investigation.
IRS - I know some agents follow this blog - can you say UNREPORTED INCOME - no license, no inventory, sales or other local taxes paid - do we really believe they would report their chicken egg business to the State and Federal revenue services. What other taxes are they not paying? Forgot - we are the stupid stooges that pay our taxes, not the 'smart set' that run 'ministries'. NON PROFIT I bet!!! $5.00 DONATION! to the Anna and Neal Fund for Thinking Good Thoughts.
Seriously 4:14 PM, start your own blog.
Frankly, I think it is nothing but a bunch of chicken sh!t!
"OK - This is not a matter of profitability. This is a matter of chicken feces in a residential neighborhood is NOT a good thing. Flies, flies and more flies unless the area is cleaned and maintained frequently. Let's get real people."
You are what I would call a "stick in the mud". Those chickens of hers are not hurting anyone and you know it.
Anna and Neal's CHIIIIIIIIICKEEEEENS have come home to ROOOOOOOOOOOST! (ala Reverend Wright!) Sorry -- couldn't resist.
Chickens waste stinks.
That's a fact.
Those fuzzy wuzzy little peeps in the last picture are sooo cute!
You don't think Anna could be so heartless as to fatten them up for the deep frier, do you?
Seriously, selling eggs out of chicken coops in their NE Jackson backyard for a buck or two instead of giving them to their neighbors, family, and friends? I thought this couple was all about giving back and helping others and not about making money. LOL Don't think so.
This information coming to light may be the final straw with JA. Blighting the JA neighborhood with a glorified flop house puts you on think ice. Moonlighting as a chicken farmer? UNACCEPTABLE, YOU CLOSET LEG HUMPER!
Someone who knows them well told me the megalomaniac is Neal and that Anna is under his spell with the videotapped tennis ball marriage proposal and such. Since a poster above brought it up. Do you own research. The whole Dore thing is as bogus as Scientology and the PR campaign to make it look like some sort of 'real' science keeps Father and Son Stephens rolling in the money. Ask someone at UMMC in the behavioral sciences if they've seen any research at all that clinically proves Dore works.
Did JA agree to be her Chicken Ranch front and advertisement partner? Other searches and links show her with kids at JA holding up egg cartons with her company logo. Did their parents give permission for their kids to be used as advertisement props for her egg business? Photos also show JA staff promoting her egg business (probably unwittingly). Is JA in the egg business now?
That much more egg for two young faces.
Keep the chickens away from Brody.
6:41 -- I thought about that when I saw those pictures also -- more importantly when I taught school, schools were unable to post students pictures on websites, or publish them in any way, without a parental release. Parents normally signed that release at the beginning of the school year. Without it, you couldn't even post a sports photo with the student in it --- online.
Obviously Ms. Anna -- did not understand this! ONLY with parental release, can a MINOR have their photo posted online by an adult (especially for business purposes). Seems we need another investigation beyond the "chicken farm".
ANNA?????? Do you have those releases???????
If it was my child -- I'd be in her face.
Y'all are all overlooking the most important part. THEY NAMED A CHICKEN YANNI !!!
The fact that JA ever employed Anna is enough for me to forget sending my unborn child (wife is pregnant) to that school. Whether or not they fire her. I know Anna very well. She has no business being around young girls and JA should perform a more in depth background check on their employees.
Anna Fiser is rogue JA employee without a remote clue about the term and concept of discretion. The sense of entitlement that she and her husband share is staggering.
The award for most funny goes to 2:50 pm.
DORE is not a scam. I've seen its positive results first hand in my own child.
Can you point us 9:07 PM to any peer-reviewed clinical studies? Why is a young huckster with no professional training or licensure in medicine, psychology or counseling traveling around the state hard selling the "program". Happy for you and your child but Dore is pseudoscience, at best, that has been roundly debunked.
Dore in Mississippi seems more like swaydo science!
Seriously, you find believers in tinfoil hats too. That doesn't prove they work.
There's a lot of state funded quackery, especially in red states. A recent example
Harris therapy controversial
But DHS site recommends it.
Some context for the circumstances in the Harris home was provided by the Harris family lawyer, Jennifer Wells, when the Times asked about the girls' treatment. She said the couple relied on techniques found in a book called When Love Is Not Enough, A Parent's Guide to Reactive Attachment Disorder by Nancy Thomas, who Wells described as a "recognized expert on therapeutic parenting techniques." Wells also told the Times that exorcisms "are not part of the Harrises' religious practice."
But Thomas' book might have put ideas about demonic possession in the Harrises' heads.
Here is what "When Love Is Not Enough" has to say about children with Reactive Attachment Disorder, which Justin Harris says the girls were diagnosed with:
"The infant rage they often internalize that first year, instead of internalizing a loving parent, makes them fascinated with destruction, fire, blood, gore and evil. They often identify with the devil."
In fact, Thomas paints a bleak picture of children with RAD, describing them as "sneaky," potentially dangerous liars who should not be let out of their rooms at night lest they harm family members.
@9:36PM. I don't need a peer review study to tell me what I've witnessed with my own two eyes in my very own home. If it didn't work for people like us, we wouldn't pay for it. It's less expensive than other therapies and produces measurable (good or bad) results for you to compare. You can quit at any time if your results aren't to your liking. Once completed, you are finished for good. Not a very good "scam" if you ask me.
Look, I'm not a friend of these people, nor am I fond of the Oxford House. It is a really stupid idea on their part and shows very poor judgement. But it's absurd to try to delegitimize every other business or profession they have. Eggs for Sale......SCANDALOUS!
"lovely gray egg cartons"
ROFLMAO
Have people gotten so ostentatious that becomes a selling point?
People can't be seen walking from the point of sell to the refrigerator with an unlovely carton of eggs?
And, the eggs you eat have to have a pretty shell as well?
People,if you have friends who are impressed by the attractiveness of your egg cartons and the color of your egg shells, you need new friends!
The Governor Finally Speaks on the Oxford House and Chicken Ranch
Fellow Mississippians, I am proudly standing here to humbly see.
I assure you, and I mean it- Now, who says I don't speak out as plain as day?
And, fellow Mississippians, I'm for progress and the flag- long may it fly.
I'm a Sherriff’s Deputy, come to greatness. So, it follows that I cannot tell a lie.
Ooh I love to dance a little sidestep, now they see me now they don't-
I've come and gone and, ooh I love to sweep around the wide step,
cut a little swathe and lead the people on.
Now my good friends, it behooves me to be solemn and declare,
I'm for goodness and for profit and for living clean and saying daily prayer.
And now, my good friends, you can sleep nights, I'll continue to stand tall.
You can trust me, for I promise, I shall keep a watchful eye upon ya'll...
Ooh I love to dance a little sidestep, now they see me now they don't-
I've come and gone and, ooh I love to sweep around the wide step,
cut a little swathe and lead the people on.
Now, Miss Anna, I don't know her, though I've heard the name, oh yes.
But, of course I've no close contact, so what she is doing I can only guess.
And now, Miss Anna, she's a blemish on the face of our good town.
I am taking certain steps here, someone somewhere's, gonna have to close her down.
Ooh I love to dance a little sidestep, now they see me now they don't-
I've come and gone and, ooh I love to sweep around the wide step,
cut a little swathe and lead the people on.
7:41
A little early for happy hour--
Word on the street is that Anna has lost her job at JA, or at least will not be offered a contract for next year, due to her lack of judgement.
I heard the same thing (unofficially) this morning-she was nonrenewed.
Well -- 8:58 -- I'm not 7:41 but WHERE is the governor in all of this, since the core of funding is coming from the Mississippi Department of Mental Health and they appear to heavily back Oxford House?
7:41 has a point. Phil "Now you see me now you don't" Bryant.
For those of you that are worried about taxes, they'd be fools NOT to report it. It's just a schedule F on their tax return. A quick search on the MS SoS site shows "Anna Stephens, LLC", which is probably the umbrella/parent/holding company for the "farm". In essence, 15 hens would probably only yield about 3500-3750 eggs per year. And that's maxed out. So if she's selling these things for $4/half dozen...that'll give her a whopping $2333-$2500 in farming revenues. Again, that's if she's selling 100% of the eggs produced. My guess is she's selling about 25%. And if you consider feed costs, materials/coop expenses, packaging, etc... There's no way she's making money. So not reporting it on a tax return would actually cause them to pay more taxes. Even if they are maxing out sales and producing a profit of let's say - $1000, you think the IRS would really throw a fit over a couple hundred bucks?
But as others have mentioned, the real issue here is the permit and city ordinance. If I was her neighbor, I'd take a half dozen eggs per week as hush money.
I can not believe this whole situation. I have been trying to get assistance from the lower school principal since 5th because he has ADHD and she has refused me at every step. Eggs, recovery homes....the Mayor needs to make a visit to their home personally then visit Jackson Academy.
3:24, you're really confusing me here. Lower school principal since April 5th or 5th grade? And what school? Ans who has ADHD? And what does this have to do with the Stephens and their actions?
7:41
Brilliant! I think Phil might actually get a chuckle out of it.
7:41
If you set this to music, you might have a hit!
Apparently their current neighbors don't mind as I've seen no objections or other mentions. Not sure their Bridgewater neighbors will be as open armed to an egg laying business, but with the $ they'll make on the Oxford Homes, maybe they will eat, uh, I mean "retire" that business. But this is all chicken feed compared to what they are doing to some families in NE Jackson. Hope someone can get this overturned. If anyone has an avenue to submit complaints or whatever, please share. I'm not near this but Fondren, Leftover, and Heatherwood, y'all are next in line. We need to do more than rant on a blog (although it is therapeutic).
This is a little off topic, but has anyone really dug deeply into Sore, the Stephens and the contract Dore has with MS Department of Rehab Services.
As I think of the Oxford House/government contract connection, the relationship of Stephens to Millcreek and the deep pocket that has historically had in state funding, i cannot help but wonder about the use of state and federal funds for "rehabilitation" using Dore, which has no current supporting research ( that i can find.)
Does anyone know about the contract there and who is working with them to make it happen?
They could probably donate eggs to the OH residents and claim a tax write off.
Do chicken houses and their eggs attract snakes?
5:15
No, but snakes have been known to run them.
DORE is pure quackery.
When trying to connect all the dots here, particularly when it comes to state/federal funding, I do wonder if the Institute for Disability Studies (IDS), Mississippi's University Center housed at the University of Southern Mississippi, is a "dot."
The Stephens' opened a DORE office on the USM campus in 2012:
http://www.usm.edu/news/article/unique-dore-program-opens-new-office-southern-miss-campus
There appears to be federal and state (Mississippi Development Authority, for one) funding involved in the IDS housing initiatives...initiatives that have as a focus "individuals with disabilities defined by the ADA..."
Here is a link to IDS housing initiatives, several of which certainly sound like they could be connected in some way to Oxford House:
http://www.usm.edu/disability-studies/housing-overview
Yes. Chickens ABSOLUTELY attract snakes. That's why they call 'em CHICKEN SNAKES. Chicken houses also attract rodents. Rodents are considered the primary vector for Salmonella in poultry. And yes: the rats can go right from having a nice nosh at Anna's Chicken Ranch, and under the fence to your dog's food bowl. Then, after Fluffy is finished licking your child's face, you've got a toddler with Meningitis - all because somebody thinks her chickens don't stink.
Well said, Bubble Boy 8:48 PM
Everyone here is so ignorant. Ignorance breeds hate. OH is not a halfway house. It is A SOBER living home where people can rebuild their lives. The government is Not paying their expenses. Some have multiple jobs and are becoming hard working TAX paying productive citizens. And guess what...they are human beings just like YOU. Y'all are making your own property value go down by acting so ridiculous. Go and meet these men and women in their homes and see how great they are.
Y'all are making your own property value go down by acting so ridiculous.
Unfortunately, that is not the real world. If you own a house next door to a Fiser Stephens Halfway House...you own it forever.
11:19 - exactly, or at least until the neighbors figure out how to shut it down along with the gravy train to Anna and Neal.
9:33 must be a Fiser, a Stephens (maybe even extended family such as a VanDevender), someone with Oxford House, or one of the Urban Eggs chickens.
9:33am,
It's obvious you have been drinking the Fiser Stephens kool aid.
A sober-living house is just another name for a half-way house. Group home and recovery home are other aliases. Interchangeable terms.
Quick search provided these tidbits:
"Sober-living homes, also known as halfway homes or halfway houses,..." Recovery.org
"A sober house, or a halfway house,..." SoberHouse.net
"Sober living homes are group homes for addicts." Rehabs.com
You come across as a naive friend, maybe a relative, who is just parroting what she has been told by Anna.
You definitely should not be calling anyone else ignorant.
9:33, wtf do you think a halfway house is, exactly? A place where they just let ex-cons get wasted whenever they feel like it?
You can call a whorehouse an "Intimate Companionship Center," but it's still a whorehouse.
Actually, forget that last part. I don't want to give Anna and Neal any more ideas.
you people need to get a life and stop trying to ruin other people's. are you seriously acting like 7th graders over a few chickens? My God, this makes me ashamed to be from Jackson.
I bet most of the people involved with this post also claim to be Christians. Christians are killing Christianity.
Post a Comment