Raising Chickens in the City

Raising Chickens for Eggs

Raising Chickens in the City

Raising chickens in the city is one of the most unique ways to integrate control over the food process into your urban life. Before you get too excited, though, you need to check a few issues.

For one, you need to check your city’s ordinances concerning Raising Chickens. Many cities allow you to keep hens but not roosters, and a few even require permits.

Sometimes chicken laws can be a little strange, requiring you to get permission from your neighbors, obey certain distance limitations, or even have an inspection from the humane society.

Every city has their own laws concerning chickens that are very easy to find with a simple internet search.

In addition to official permission, you should also consider whether or not having chickens would make relations with your neighbors tense. It’s a good idea to let your neighbors know that you’ll be getting chickens.

Even though hens don't make much noise, roosters can outdo barking dogs for noisiness. if your neighbors persistently call the police with noise complaints you’ll be in a tough spot.

Having a good rapport with those living around you makes for a better quality of life, so be nice to your neighbors. Consider their wishes on your raising chickens in the city. If they don't want chickens nearby, so be it, but if they do cooperate, be sure to give them fresh eggs regularly.

In addition to these concerns about raising chickens in the city, you will also have the problems raised by having chickens in general. There is an abundance of aggressive wildlife in most urban areas, including raccoons and dogs.

Your Backyard Chickens need to be kept safe from these predators just like on a farm. A sturdy Chicken Coop will be a must.

They will also need access to Organic Chicken Feed and some room to run around. Free Range Chickens have life the best, but if you are in the city and have a small yard, even a couple of hours outside scratching around for bugs is very beneficial for them.

You will likely need to get county approval in some urban areas, in others the requirements are simple. Usually something like this:

No more than 3-5 hens, no Roosters and keep them further than 100 feet from someones home. Quite do able, but it’s a good idea to find out how far you’ll have to go before you decide on getting chickens.

Raising chickens in the city is incredibly satisfying, and can bring a little more self-sustenance into your urban lifestyle.

Imagine never going to the store for eggs again! With all the red tape you have to go through, it can be a hassle to get started, but once you’ve got the hang of it you’ll never want to give it up!

Raising Chickens for Eggs

Eggs are one of the best ways to utilize your city chickens. Unless you eat a lot of eggs, you can get by with only one or two hens to be completely self sufficient on the egg front. Raising chickens for eggs is easy because chickens need no provoking to lay eggs.

They’ll lay eggs until they’re three or four years old, and you can depend on at least one egg every day per hen. As long as your chickens have good nutrition, and you are Feeding Chickens well, they will continue to lay eggs consistently. Hens do get old relatively fast, however, and egg productions drops of rapidly after 2 years or so.

Despite rumors to the contrary, Egg Laying Chickens do not need a rooster around to start the egg laying process.

When they reach the right age, they’ll start laying their eggs in their nesting area.

If you remove the eggs, you’ll prevent the chickens from starting their brooding process and they’ll just continue to lay more. They keep thinking there aren't enough eggs, we must lay some more!

Another trick is to "plant" one egg, or golf ball, in the nest to encourage your hens.

My niece has the funniest memory of doing just that, but with her pet dove. She found a marble toy egg, and put it in with her dove just for fun. When the dove laid an egg she was so happy and surprised. That dove hatched her baby successfully too.

Our family seems to have a lot of egg hatching stories! My daughter has had a pet pigeon, Beaker, that she got at the fair three years ago. They told us it was a male bird, and he was indeed or so we thought, until one night her little brother slipped a little round ball into her cage.

Low and behold, our boy laid an egg! And then another egg. It was hard to begin calling her a "she" but there you have the power of the suggestion egg!

Egg laying chickens require no more work than any other kind of chicken, so why not reap the benefits?

Backyard Chickens

Beyond the concerns raised by other people, you might also have problems giving up part of your yard for a chicken coop. If your backyard isn’t very big and lush, you’ll need to keep on top of their foraging and also their waste.

This won’t be a problem with a few chickens in a grassy backyard, but if you’ve got a miniature yard with a few blades of grass your yard will be a mess.

While chickens like people, they can also be mean depending on the breed. If you have small children you will want to stay away from the white LegHorns.

If your chickens are sharing the backyard with a dog, they might not always get along. So, consider if your backyard really is large enough for chickens.

Chickens can live up to 8 years, so they’re not a pet to get if you’re not solidly committed to your current location and way of life.

Egg Laying Chickens

There are a few great breeds of egg laying chickens, all of which convert a high amount of their nutrients into eggs. You might want to consider a particularly hardy breed like Rhode Island Reds, because these birds are tough but also friendly and pull their weight in the egg laying department.

While Leghorns are great egg producers, they can be noisy and mean. Most breeds of egg laying chickens will be well suited to backyards as long as they’re with chickens of equally docile breeding and they’re well protected.

Raising chickens in the city is all about planning. Once you’ve got everything set up, your time commitment to your egg laying chickens will be minimal. So, give the legal, spatial, and time commitments some thought, and go out and get started!

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