how many are on small suburban / city lots?

[jennifer0224]

Seems like every picture i see posted on here are of acres and acres of open land, but i know there are many like me on here..

Anyone else on less than an acre of land? How many chickens do you have? How far away from your neighbors is your coop?

I have a lot of about 8,000 sf, i don't know what percentage of an acre that is. I now have 8 chicks (limit here is 10), and my coop is about 10 feet from the neighbor's property

 

[HighStreetCoop]

I'm on a 4K sf lot, about a third of which is lost to front yard. My back yard is SMALL and the dirt section is even smaller (just 10' x 25' on a terrace where I filled in a funky old swimming pool). So my coop is smack in the middle of the yard to keep it the required distance from neighbors. I've got five birds, and would love to have more if only I had the room.

Small garden portion of the yard:



Dog sunning himself on the back side of the coop. There's a small dirt patch, a covered patio, and stairs up to the terrace:



Where I put the coop, before it was installed:



Alternate shot of my tiny dirt patch:



Coop the day it went in:

 

[jennifer0224]

Looks like your 5 have plenty of room! How far from the property line are they required to be? Here it is 20 feet, so if we ever get any complaints we'll have to move our coop into our lawn which is fine. Though i am sure it is nice to live on more property, i have to admit i like the convenience of being so close to everything! We also have a garden on the other side of the yard. Room enough for what we need, at least.

 

[HighStreetCoop]

Here it's 20' from any of the neighboring structures, not from the property line. But I don't think anyone would care. I just didn't want to have to move the coop if they did later. Roosters are illegal too, and there are at least 5 on my block including mine. When I asked the neighbors about keeping him they either didn't care or flat out said they like the sound of them all crowing, LOL! We don't have a limit on the number of birds allowed, so in theory, I could expand the coop and run and get more birds, but I think the dog deserves a little dirt access.

 

[jennifer0224]

That's nice for you! I don't think a rooster would go over well with my neighbors. I think many of our neighbors are more worried about property values and weeds than homesteading

 

[drumstick diva]

My friend lives in a suburb of Chicago and has 5 bantams in her home. Two are "surprise" roosters. Most of them do not go outside at all. She only lets her favorite go outside.
We argue about this all the time. But her birds seem to have adjusted well (?) to an indoor life. Luckily her neighbors don't complain about the crowing. She has been living in the same house for several decades. She has a large, fenced yard and beautiful landscaping she did herself. I think that is the real reason she doesn't want them outside.