Well, I have 7 girls living in a small coop on the side of my house and I live in Vestal, NY. They are quieter than the crows and other birds in the neighborhood that wake me up at 4:00AM every morning. I've already had 3 deer tick attach themselves to me and have had a house full of fleas every year for the past 5 because I refuse to spray my yard with chemicals that end up in our ground water and in the vegetables I eat from my garden. I've tried to read the zoning laws in Vestal but you need a lawyer to interpret them. I want to know where my eggs are coming from and what is being fed to those chickens...I don't want to eat chicken or eggs filled with antibiotics that make me immune to the common ones and force me to take a new antibiotic or a stronger one because of the mass production of our foods.Orlando, FL has a chicken law allowing them, I understand the city of Binghamton also does. Some people in Vestal do have them as I've seen them..I have no intention of raising roosters, but would like my girls to be allowed to live here and roam freely in my yard. I believe I'm keeping them illegally and I have a neighbor that sneaks through my yard at night and I'm pretty sure they signed a petition against it today.