Raising chickens in Dallas, TX

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Hello, I'm a new egg too! I live in the Dallas suburbs and I have 5 wonderful ladies. 1 white leghorn "Georgina", 1 Silver-Laced Wyandotte "Tammy", 1 Golden-laced Wyandotte "Goldie" and 2 black star/mixed "Hennah" and "Betty". George just started laying on Oct 29 and Goldie on Nov 11 and Tammy on Nov 15. Hennah And Betty are 6 weeks younger and hopefully will start soon. We are getting about 18 eggs a week with just the 3 layers! All my girls have great personalities and love to talk. Betty is the loudest and when she "caws" it sounds like loud, hillarious laughter
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I have raised them since they were 2 weeks old and purchased them in May from Turner Hardware, Gecko Hardware in Garland. We also had 1 polish crested that litterally disappeared from the brooder one night (poof!) without a trace. We also had a Buff Orphy bantam, "Buffy" that began crowing in June (uh-oh) and had to be re-located to a little girl on a farm in Victoria- he now goes by "Dusty"and is the loving house pet of a 9 year old girl.
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Being new to chickens I have learned alot along the way and have had a great adventure with my feathered ladies. I unfortunately live in a town that does not actually allow backyard chickens and I'm looking to group up with others who may want to help me change that.



 
Hi there! I live in Lakewood area 4 miles east of Dallas, and am wanting to start raising chickens. What part of town are you from in DFW? I've never raised chickens before, and would appreciate any knowledge you've gleaned from also being in the DFW area. What sort of problems have you run into?
 
Hello there! I haven't run into any problems as yet, but I have to be very secretive on where my chickens are as my town is very stubborn about NOT allowing us to have small backyard layers. I live in a very old part of Dallas that is mostly retirees and immigrants and most have lived in my neighborhood for 30+ years. So long as there are no roosters, my neighbors don't care what other neighbors do on their property whether gardening, chickens or even goats! However, the political branch of my town are all rich, high society brats who are trying to change the image of my town as 'hip, urban & young' and just because they don't want chickens (it's never actually been proven that chickens reduce proper value) on their highly manicured English Gardens, then they have continuosly thrown out any attempts to legalize them for us (poor folks) residents.

Before staring any chicken project, I would recommend really researching your neighborhood. Any noisy neighbors? High-society brats? Whistle blowing tattlers? Even if you are allowed to have chickens in your area, it only takes 1 anonymous complaint to really cause problems- and the complaints don't even have to be justified to warrant a visit from animal control, an egg-sucking properly inspector or even the police.

If there are no property issues, you need to know where your closest feed/supply store is and what supplies they carry regularly. I have to drive 30 miles to get my organic,non GMO feed, scratch and treats and have had to DIY my own coop/feeder/waterer as individual needs vary. I also had to get my chicks in Garland at a hardware store, as getting them mailed to my local post-office would really have blown my cover and the post-office would have to report that such-n-such resident is ordering live poultry through the mail.
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whoops, didn't know about staring a new thread to speak to other Dallas-ites
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But my other 2 girls starting laying this weekend, surprising everyone. Hennah is apparently an olive-egger! That makes all 5 of my girls contributing members of my family now..
It only took 6 months from egg to egg
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