Raising Chickens in an Apartment

[Shogun99]

So yeah I know by the post that some people would think it is crazy, but I am trying to actually do this for a speech that I have coming up on Monday and I'm trying to be both informative on the HOW'S and WHAT'S of Raising chickens in an apartment or with very limited spacing...i.e....maybe a patio with no yard.

What would you all say? Keep the chickens (females only) inside but in a Rabbit Hutch of sorts? Keep them on a concrete patio with the same setup? On the ground? Raised up with a shield to keep droppings, etc from going everywhere?

I need some advice...my outline is due on Monday! Speech is Wednesday!

 

[Bassleg]

Same as a dam smelling CAT!!!

 

[AussieSharon]

I have a bantam trio in a rabbit hutch and it works great. Mind you it isn't inside so I can't offer much advice there. If you had one with a slide out poop pan I imagine if cleaned regularly it wouldn't be any worse than a cat's litter box.

 

[coffeelady3]

I think raising chickens in an apartment would be doable. I agree with the others who recommend bantams. You get the full chicken experience at half the size (eggs and all)! A rabbit hutch would be good, but you could also do something as simple as making a coop out of a large rubbermaid container or a small dog house. (It would be easy to bring it in at night, so it doesn't need to be completely predator proof) and an dogs exercise pen for them to run around. Make some sort of tray with a linoleum bottom that you can set the exercise pen into. It would be fairly easy to clean, just scoop it out with a dust pan, or remove the pen and just dump the whole thing.

As far as keeping them happy, LizBizzy is right. You need to get creative and figure out ways to satisfy their natural instincts. Maybe go to a nursery and get a square of sod, a shallow rubbermaid tray filled with dirt, find some bugs or meal worms to bury in the dirt, grow some edible plants, build some perches, move them around. Rotate the activities so that every day give them something new to do. This is what zoos do every day with their animals. It's called behavioral enrichment. Here's an article that I found on line on enriching chickens in a research or commercial environment.

http://www.awionline.org/pubs/cq02/Cq-chick.html

Good luck!

 

[silkiechicken]

I think you could. It would be like raising a house chicken.

 

[MandyH]

How many chickens are you talking? Man those things can make a horrible stink, you do not want the smell of chicken mess permanantly embedded in the sheetrock of your apartment. Even on the patio its gonna stink. Where are you going to dispose of the large amount of poop at?

 

[Shogun99]

Let me clarify...I am talking 2 maybe 3 chickens tops. Since chickens are social creatures, there has to be at least 2.

What I'm looking for is the HOW-TO or what would you do to make it work? I'm thinking a rabbit hutch would be the best option. EH????....

 

[silkiechicken]

I'd get a very large rabbit hutch, maybe two and put them together, and get a pair of banty girls. I'd fear that standard girls would get antsy and just be too unhappy cooped up without even grass to play on, while a half blind anyways silkie bantam might not miss a beat. LOL

 

[ChickaD]

Our future SIL has a friend who has actually raised chickens inside her house, by penning off part of her kitchen.

I believe he's been there to see them and the set-up was kept very clean. I have no idea how she's done it, but I do think of her often when I'm shoveling out our coop. Wish I had more details for you! Good luck, and don't chicken out!

When we were raising one batch of chicks years ago while we were waiting for our coop to be built, we had to keep the ever-growing young chickens in our basement for months and months 'til they were HUGE. We spread a plastic tarp on the cement floor, with wood shavings on top. We cobbled together a rudimentary plywood enclosure, with a light clamped on the side. We'd change their bedding as needed. Their food and water containers were raised on cement blocks. For some reason, it seemed to work. They did eventually get out to the finished coop. We never told many people about this!

 

[jakmallex]

I raised my 2 first bantam chicks in an apartment (until one started crowing). I had an exercise pen (like you use for dogs) outside on my porch for a play area. They lived in a rubbermaid tub in the house, but they were pretty small at the time.