Any tips for city chicken owners?

[sunnychooks]

Have you checked out www.thecitychicken.com? Even though I don't live in the city I enjoy the site and there is a lot of good info for people in urban areas who have chickens.

 

[jkm]

My neighbor is ignoring them, so she gets free eggs.

I have a 4x4 coop and a cheap wire run 8 by 12 feet, now has straw bales on one side to keep wind out. no big predators in our area. ( red tails can't get under the tree cover to stoop, and swainsons are not big enough)
I have two buffs, and two barred rocks, ready to lay any day now!

what I have learned the hard way,

1 coop must be elevated to keep mice from nesting underneath

2 Dogs can be trained to leave chickens alone, all my herd dogs now igore the birds.

3 They must free range some for sanity sake! I have fences and have cut back to one & 1/2 hours a day of yard time. They just cluck and cry until they get out.
two handfulls of corn in the pen helps with the need to forage, but not for more than an hour or so. One is getting reaaly loud, but the rains have started and everyone has gone inside, so she cannot be heard.
Also they need to get away from each other....

4 I no longer use any chemicals on the yard, I want to eat the eggs, white clover in the lawn was great, chickens love it and so do the bugs the girsl like.

5 wish I had bought the coop set from Albany pet that comes from the UK, much better than the thing i did.

6 I wish I had done this years ago , it has been a fun project.

 

[LindaN]

I'm also an urban chicken keeper. In Chicago where I live, it is legal to keep chickens (even roosters) as long as they are not being raised for slaughter. I have 3 Red Star hens that I keep in an Eglu. I opted for the Eglu because I don't have the tools and skills to build my own coop, although now I'm dreaming about a coop incorporated into a passive solar greenhouse design. (It's a Chicago thing to have these grand visions, I guess. Daniel Burnham, the famous Chicago architect and urban planner said "Make no little plans.")

Despite TXchicknrancher's opinion, I'd say my city chickens are very happy! I let them out to roam the yard every day and they also get lots of yummy food such as veggie trimmings and leftovers. They positively adore dandelion greens and I find myself wishing I had more dandelions in my yard!

They also like all bugs: spiders, pill bugs, earwigs, earthworms, etc. As a treat I will give them mealworms from the pet store and raisins. (They LOVE raisins). Chickens have personalities and I've found they make great pets.

I did get them so I could enjoy fresh eggs, though, so I take care to protect them from potential predators. Although there are different kinds of hawks and raptors in Chicago, I haven't seen any in my neighborhood. (And I like to think they'd go after the pesky pigeons first instead of my chickens.) My main concerns are to protect the chickens from the coyotes, racoons, and occasional stray dog. So, I shut them inside their Eglu coop every night.

I also don't want to attract any more vermin than is already roaming around, so I remove their food container every night and lock it up with their feed inside a metal trash can in the garage. I hope to avoid feeding the rats this way!

 

[LeghornGuy]

I am an urban flock owner. I have 16 pullets and a rooster. I keep my rooster a separate cage at night. Before I go to work at 8am, I put him outside in the chicken run. My neighbors are up early but I just want to be considerate incase someone wants to sleep in or sleep late.
My advice is raise hens without a rooster.
My leghorns are hyper and active.
I would recommend a calm breed.
Good luck with your city flock.

 

[imloulou]

Quote:
I dont agree with this. We have a VERY small lot...by small I mean a 60' by 120' lot with a 1300 sq foot house in the middle of it. Our backyard is small...our chickens are happy...and we have 9 of them.

TxChiknRanchers...dont take this personal...I just have to disagree and give hope to city dwellers that is really is possible to have chickens in the city.

Bellydancer,
I think most of the issues have been addressed above...the smell...the predators...the roos...the laws, etc. I am not sure of your exact situation. I live in a small-ish city. I have 4 neighbors that butt up close to our lot and they were able to hear our rooster clearly in the morning. Our rooster is now gone...and we have since found out that friends 5 houses away heard our rooster in the morning . But no one can tell we have hens. This gives you an idea how close our neighbors are.

Living in the city you have to get creative with the space.

I'll take more pics tomorrow because we have reworked the "free range" area. Below are pics of the coop/run.

Here is part of our run that is enclosed...it is attached to the coop and another run (it runs behind our workshop...the coop and other run are right up against our workshop):

Here is the coop...you can see the run shown above is on the left of this photo and runs behind the workshop...it is predator proof (well, as predator proof as we can...ya never know):

Happy chicks (I think Moe our Easter Egger is actually skipping...hehehe!):

More happy chicks...ok..."Smudge the Deleware" looks ticked in this photo but she is really happy

 

[Lunachick]

Bellydancer - I have the same set up as you. The Chick n Hutch and Run that goes with it. I had to majorly modify it.

Hardware cloth attached to bottom of run and partially up the back part that attached to the hutch. Nobody could get in there.

I put hooks and eyes on the top of hutch and that part attached to wooden part of run. If you can understand what I'm talking about.

I had to build a small frame around the egg door and put a hinge on the door flap with a lock clip on the hinge.

And last but not least, I put a wire "tent" like shape onto the run and added a tarp over it so they had shade for summer, also I'm going to switch that to clear plastic for winter protection.
And lastly I'm going to put plastic around the run for wind protection.

Hope some of this helps. I'm also one of those chicken owners that are under the radar. I don't think my next door neighbors even know I have them! Two don't make that much noise.

 

[TxChiknRanchers]

Imloulou; No offense taken. Was mostly kidding

As soon as I saw "happy city chickens" oxymoron was my first thought cause I get a cold chill down my spine everytime I see a city limits sign. But that's my personal problem. I knew that there are many city chicken owners here so I was just trying to get a rise outa someone

Its my nature what can I say? Wife tells me all the time "stop causing trouble" so I do for a minute or two.

btw the coup is nice I like that setup.

 

[EweSheep]

TXchicken, you sounded like my husband

I would agree with your wife to quit making trouble!

 

[earthnut]

@ TXchicken.

I'm about to join the city chicken ranks - on Saturday I'm getting my first chickens, which are sure to be pampered and smothered!

 

[bellydancer]

Quote:
I would LOVE to hear more in detail what you did-- or to see any pics?! Please!

My chickens seem to need more room, but my goodness, they can RUN FAST!