Chickens on my porch?

[ardt64]

We used to have 2 chickens in a chicken tractor on our community farm, but because of local zoning and to keep peace among our neighbors we gave them away, and I miss them! So I am having this crazy idea that we can have 2 chickens on the 3rd story deck of our house. The space is about 15ftX10ft. We have friends who want to get rid of an old lizard cage that is about 6 ft high and 3 ft wide and deep. It is currently all plexiglass but could be adapted. I am not stuck on the idea of using this but thought it could be a good start.
In doing a web search I am finding lots of things about urban chicken but most have some yard space. I also found some things about indoor chickens, but the only information I can find about porch chickens was a recipe to cook them-yikes.
I would love some advice to know if this is doable and also some tips on how to accomplish the task.

Thanks,
Lisa

 

[Chihuahuamom444]

Believe it or not we have a House chicken, she was the only chicken at the time, a baby, and was raised in a large cage indoors, then we got outside chickens with a coop and tried to adapt her, she was Miserable and looking in my glass backdoor she would be , staring, till we brought her back in and put in her cage. The point Im getting at is I really think that your chickens would be somewhat deprived, they LOVE digging in the dirt and looking for bugs etc . It certainly could be done but you'd have to supply all kinds of "goodies" for them to pick at and keep them occupied. I feel bad for my little girl but it's all she knows. She will now stay out most of the day doing what chickens do but late aft there she will be at the door waiting to come in where she feels safe. She is Very healthy and happy, but in winter months when she can't go out I give her all kinds of greens and even buy her crickets at pet store so she stays healthy. So whatever you decide to do your chickens won't know any different, but I still think they'd be much happier in an enclosure in the grass and dirt. I'm sure you'll get many oppinions and if that is the Only way you can have them then I'd say go for it, Maybe you can sneak them in alittle time in the yard in a gated area so they can enjoy the ground...Good luck....

 

[elmo]

You could probably keep a couple of tiny bantams like Seramas in a setup like that. I would not use a plexiglass cage, though. Chickens need plenty of ventilation and need to avoid extreme high temps that could build up in a plexiglass cage if it can heat up inside from the sun.

You could use hardware cloth to screen the whole porch, build a baseboard to contain the litter/bedding, and construct a draft free shelter for roosting since Seramas are not known to be cold hardy. You'd need to give some thought to making sure rain didn't blow in and wet your bedding. And you would have to do a fair amount of regular work to keep the set up clean and odor free.

As the other commenter noted, you would also want to provide supplemental greens (like carrot tops, romaine lettuce, etc.) to take the place of forage.

Doable? Yes, I think so.