Chickens in town, or Urban Farming

[Kevin565]

If your only allowed two birds then I would stick to that until they pass new regulations. (Animal control can be a huge pain in the butt

). As for how many you can keep in the city.... I live in the city on about a acre. I currently have 5 guineas 7 ducks 1 goose 2 new goslings and I'm still adding more..

 

[Urbanfarmerkc]

I live in the middle of the city and back up to a park. I slipped in under some old laws but I still ended up in court. My chickens were out and I didn't have my fence up and ended up getting slapped with a fine for having fowl "at large". LOL

It is best to check with your zoning folks but I wouldn't tell them where you are or you might be asking them to come out for a visit. Not a friendly one.

I found our ordnances online by googling my town and the word fowl, then livestock and kept adding words till I found it. I've had my town tell people they couldn't have chickens even though they can so sometimes they can lie to you too...

Good luck!

Dave

 

[laughingdog]

i live in town in apartment complex, and currently trying to hatch, as well as now have two bantam hens, and two bantam roos (had, and or maybe have four roos, which currently at neighbors to roam and graze, to give two pairs at home more room to do thing and mate). i just played a joke on neighbor were i left my one roo in her kitchen for her or her hubby to find with his hangover (sure the one time this roo doesnt crow!!! lol and she freaked, and other cop neighbors thought hilarious, though a couple still foolishly seemed surprised that i had roosters and hens in apartment as pets (other who know me better were seemingly unsurprised). id like five hens and a good rooster, for my yard space, but bantams are usually exempt from zoning and livestock ordnances as they are ornamental anyway and under pet category like exotic birds instead of other foul. course everywhere ive lived the mexicans are never gotten in trouble for free ranging, to keeping stuffed in tiny crate, so i dont see why i should have to abide by laws either if i wasnt in agriculturally zoned area (this isnt racism or bitterness, just unfair in other areas, were some are allowed chickens, and others not). here, people keep dozens to hundreds of roosters pegged out in fields, so i figure my small flock no one would care about anyway.

 

[jettgirl24]

I'm in the city of Seattle (for now) and have the max allowed - 8... But I just set 6 eggs in my bator to test it out... And I have 2 dozen Silkie eggs coming at the end of April

Luckily we're moving to 5 acres at the end of June so I just have to sell the roos and find a spot for the girls for a month or so until we move

 

[rufus]

I currently have eleven hens and a rooster. I live in the center of town. Once you realize that you are a criminal, you have a lot more latitude in your chicken operation. You can do basically what you can get away with.

I live in a neighborhood where no one calls the cops unless someone is dead, and then it has to be someone that matters.

Chickens are small potatoes here. There are people keeping goats and pigs, a lot of illicit farming and God only knows what else is going on.

Out of sight, out of mind. Don't be obvious.

Rufus

 

[kittycooks]

My suburb allows up to 10 chickens per acre but no roosters. I keep my hens confined, but that is mostly because of the hawks. Many cities have their ordinances on-line. One of the rules here is ability to manage chicken litter on your own property. You might want to include a compost bin as you draw up your plans.

 

[mkearsley]

We're allowed 3 hens, no roosters. I have one extra (but 2 are bantam, so they only count as 1/2 a chicken right?

I am seriously considering getting some meat chickens for personal consumption, because I'd rather not winter more chickens, but I've got the "chicken bug" too. I live in a town about 15,000 on a regular house lot, so the 4 girls have their favorite grazing areas that are nearly dirt. Unless you eat a lot of eggs, I'm sure 3 hens will produce plenty for two people. I've got 3 girls that lay, so I'm getting 1 dozen eggs plus a few extra each week. I've been selling the eggs I get because the husband thinks "farm fresh" eggs taste funny

I've been selling them to 3 co-workers, and now I may have to find new people because the 4 of us (with 2 people per house) can't keep up.

I mainly got the girls for bug control, the eggs are an added bonus.

My hometown is starting to figure out what rules they want for chicken farming in town. Currently there are no rules... I know that a lot of people are getting into it as the price of everything starts increasing & eggs are a good source of protein.

I'd have to agree with kittycooks, make sure you have a compost pile or something that you can recycle the bird litter. If you use straw, it piles up really fast! Pine shavings take a little longer, but I think my birds prefer the straw.

 

[BrynnRDH]

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Wow, that's a lot of eggs! We are lucky and have a trash bin for yard debris that the recycling co. picks up and composts. I plan on just putting our shavings in there when I clean the coop.

Right now we go through about a dozen eggs a week between the two of us. My fiance eats hard boiled eggs for snacks every day and I like to have eggs for breakfast a lot. I've been hearing that you should buy more chicks than you plan on having in case some turn out to be roosters or die. I figure that by four weeks we should be able to tell who is a rooster and then it wouldn't be too late to get some more chicks.

 

[nicokl502]

when we got ours in nov, you could only have 4 but i check online and now it say you can have 15, we live in kansas city, mo , we only have 3 and i also want to get two,

 

[hallerlake]

Might as well hang for a sheep as for a lamb. As they say.

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