Chicken-Keeping Tips for City Slickers

Wonderful article with lots of good tips on how to keep chickens in the city.

Great info!

Great article!

Great article with a lot of good information!

Great article! I'm going to try to use some of you tactics for keeping chickens in a small run, and apply it for keeping our messy ducks in the country! Our duck run is always terribly muddy, so some of the tips in there may help me in the wet season. Thanks!

Very useful

Will be getting our first chickens soon here in suburbia. Thanks for the great info. I have been researching the ecosystem I will have for my new backyard once the chicks arrive. Your information is very helpful.

As a city slicker chicken keeper I can attest to the truthfulness of all of these suggestions. Thanks for sharing.

Love your imagination on how to maintain your flock. Thanks for the article.

Good tips for City chickens!

This is good, practical advice for city and small acreage owners looking to both manage and put their birds to good use. May have to consider some bantams

These tips are helpful - especially how to manage the ecosystem with their poop and stuff. The mowed grass we have gets thrown in as bedding. If we're short, we use shavings. And we use a shallow pan as a poop board and I use zeolite liberally. I also bought a huge bag of lavender flowers from amazon to sprinkle liberally (including in their nesting box).
We use a box from Costco that holds all the frozen "Chicken Thighs" as their nesting box... it is a perfect size for a nesting box And compostable when it gets nasty. It's kind of ironic to use the box from dead chickens for sale to collect eggs but that's okay - the ladies can't read

Very good. Recognizable at several points too having 6-9 small bantams.
I have found a solution on this issue:

If we need to leave them in their coop because it’s too wet (for them or for us), or we just don’t have time to get out there and let them out,

Click to expand...

I made a sliding chicken door with a pulley and automatic dooropener between the coop and the run. It opens at sunrise and closes at sunset. So in daylight my chickens can choose to go outside. In the run they have a few shelter spots.
The chicken guard is also handy for chickensitters if we are away for a few weeks.

I have been raising my chickens in the "ME" portion of our backyard for the last (almost) 2 years and although I am in a rural small town, I do not have unlimited space. I gave up half of my veggie garden area to raise my girls and it has been a learning as I go challenge to find the right mix for all concerned (thank you BYC peeps!!!). Your article is spot on, I absolutely agree with your take on breeds, use of space and cohabitation with plants, eco systems, neighbors, fuzzy family and hearts. Bravo. The only thing I would also mention to those who were still making decisions on coops and breeds is the larger breeds can't go high very well. So if you choose the large breeds keep things low (a regret of mine) and if you choose the Bantam breeds, keeping them contained will be your big challenge, they are clever and resourceful little buggers. I also cant stress enough the importance of compost tumblers, mulch and poop boards. Once that is in place, all is right in chicken/people world.
I will look for your recommended book, it sounds good. Mahalo, for the photos and useful article. Right on!!!

This is the best article I've seen for city and suburban chicken keepers ... and it wouldn't hurt the rest of us to go over it, either!

Good tips for those living in the city that desire a flock!

Great article! I am often the recipient of chickens that my "small city lot" friend cannot keep (roosters, flyers, noisy hens) - but I love that she is still able to keep birds AND have neighbors who like her!