Anyone raise chickens in apartments or dorms?

[crait]

I just wanted to see if anyone owns chickens inside apartments or dorms because I was hoping to get a little more information on what all is needed. I'm sure it's similar to keeping them living in a house, but in a smaller area.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Do you have a terrace or patio area they can use and is it permissible?
I have a daughter that would love to have a pet in her dorm, but can't. I suggested that maybe I can give her one of my incubators and about 5 dozen eggs every month for her to do some of my incubating and turning to get whatever it is she needs to have with animals tended to. She thinks that might actually be allowed. But she can't have animals at all.
If I wanted to do this indoors, and I'm not saying I wouldn't, I would imagine I would need to keep them contained somehow and that I couldn't have very many at all.

 

[crait]

Well, the college that I'm going to go to has a dorm for freshman that only allows fish as pets. I don't know much about the rules of the upper classmates' dorms.
I'm going to try to write an essay to ask for an exception for my dwarf bantam.

I'm going to pull the 'I need the extra nutrition' card. Haha.


I would really love to bring along at least one of my babies with me...

 

[rhoda_bruce]

My daughter's dorm is a cute little set of rooms with a court yard in the middle. They have a few BBQ pits and a chainlinked fence. I went for a visit a few weeks ago and I was pointing out where her and the roommate should put some tomato and cucumber plants. I would think they could also have a small coop, if they could think of a scientific reason for it, but I tell her that stuff in joking because I know it won't be allowed.

 

[crait]

In colleges, now, it's required to be vaccinated against the Bacterial Meningitis. Malnutrition is the main reason people get it and how it spreads so deadly. You could possibly say it's a cost efficient way to fight Meningitis. I think that's what I'm going to say.

The balcony idea is great, too.

 

[patandchickens]

If you do decide to try it, please PLEASE have a cast-iron commitment from someone(s) to take the animal if and when you get found out. Between my own college and grad school years, and teaching at colleges for a goodly while thereafter, I have seen so many really sad situations where someone sneaks a cat or puppy or parakeet or whatever into the dorm or apartment, then is told they will be evicted unless it is gone within 24 hours and the animal ends up dumped or sent to a shelter to be probably-euthanized or meets other highly stressful and undesirable fates. So *please* make sure that there are people ready and willing to take the chicken(s) right away if necessary. Statistically speaking it seems to me like a large proportion of these things last less than a year before someone finds out or complains and the animal has to go...

Best of luck though,

Pat

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Honestly I know how you feel, because I am a chicken person. Just keep your chickens at home and get a younger brother or parent or someone to tend them and bring some of your eggs back to school to keep the taste in your mouth. It really won't work out. If they make exceptions for you, then someone with asthma will need their Mexican toy dog and someone with a nervous disorder will need their cat, etc.
Maybe you can do something with the ag dept to keep a small amount of chickens. Check it out, because I can't see you having it as a pet in your dorm.

 

[OverEZ]

Chickens create alot of manure. Not to mention the shavings or bedding that tends to scatter. Chicken coops/pens/cages need ventilation. Outside is best for large breeds. Maybe a bantam variety in small numbers would work inside, but then the eggs would be relatively small for consumption.

 

[Sunny the Hippie Chick]

It actually would be better to have a house chicken in a house than an apartment. Apartment walls are easy to hear through. If you got a chicken in an apartment. I would suggest the serema.. they are the smallest chicken breed. No roos though.. But I live in an apartment and I have raised button quail and coturnix quail.. The coturnix got a bit smelly and you had to change their bedding about 4 times a day.. The button quail I still have.. I used to have 25 of them.. And I have never gotten a complaint about a button quail roos crow.. I would go with the smallest poultry..

 

[crait]

patandchickens, I don't plan on keeping one against the rules. If I'm told not to have them, I will keep them with my family here in Round Rock. If I am allowed to keep them and then I'm told to get rid of them pronto, then I'll take them to my father's house or grandparents. I have some family in the city next to where I plan to go.

rhoda_bruce, I'm not going to give up without trying my hardest.

I'll make sure I go through everything the right way to ensure that I can at least keep my dwarf Fran.

OverEZ, I plan on keeping my dark cornish bantam hen. She's a lot smaller than regular parakeets and a lot of other pet birds I've seen. I plan on constantly keeping her cage/pen/thing clean and neat with fresh shavings and manure free.

Sunny the Hippie Chick, thanks for the tips.