Should poultry be raised in cities, county communities or near any of these?

[SourRoses]

People are dirty. Even those who look and act as if they are pristine contribute to filth being spewed everywhere else. Yes, I'm guilty too.
I continually find myself befuddled when I see the kind of people who consider themselves especially elevated. Beyond fancy clothes and surroundings, listening to music selected by others who have deemed it superior, it's the attitude, the idea... that a sack of meat and water is somehow better than another sack of meat and water.
We are animals.
We poop. A LOT. And spread it all over the planet.
We die, and fill the earth with each other's bodies.
We make noise. An incredible racket. Endless vocalizations we are so needy of that we record them to play back again. Construction equipment, transportation, industry, all are louder than an animal calling to another. While spewing stinky, poisonous substances into the air.
Bugs love us. Rats would be rare without us.
We are vectors of all manner of infectious diseases.
We carve open the earth and stuff our non-degradable rubbish into it, to stink and breed bugs.

What are we, to scrunch our noses up at other animals? Especially ones we have cultured for thousands of years to be useful towards our continued existence?

It would be better for all species, including us, if cities were banned. Humans at a distance are cleaner.
But since that's not going to happen... bring on the animals. As more people get attached to their micro farms, they won't build houses quite so close, and that will improve future development areas.

 

[SmiYa0126]

Here's an article on residential chicken keeping in verification Belgium https://dengarden.com/news/chicken-project

 

[tlcmurphy]

People are dirty. Even those who look and act as if they are pristine contribute to filth being spewed everywhere else. Yes, I'm guilty too.
I continually find myself befuddled when I see the kind of people who consider themselves especially elevated. Beyond fancy clothes and surroundings, listening to music selected by others who have deemed it superior, it's the attitude, the idea... that a sack of meat and water is somehow better than another sack of meat and water.
We are animals.
We poop. A LOT. And spread it all over the planet.
We die, and fill the earth with each other's bodies.
We make noise. An incredible racket. Endless vocalizations we are so needy of that we record them to play back again. Construction equipment, transportation, industry, all are louder than an animal calling to another. While spewing stinky, poisonous substances into the air.
Bugs love us. Rats would be rare without us.
We are vectors of all manner of infectious diseases.
We carve open the earth and stuff our non-degradable rubbish into it, to stink and breed bugs.

What are we, to scrunch our noses up at other animals? Especially ones we have cultured for thousands of years to be useful towards our continued existence?

It would be better for all species, including us, if cities were banned. Humans at a distance are cleaner.
But since that's not going to happen... bring on the animals. As more people get attached to their micro farms, they won't build houses quite so close, and that will improve future development areas.

 

[wkyongae]

Someone made a comment about years ago chickens being raised in town. Hum, if I go back fithty years ago to the town I grew up near no one had chickens in town. Chickens were considered lice carryers and rodent attractors. The only animal that might have been raised was the rabbit. Never chickens in this day and age a person can buy a very expensive chicken coop to put their chickens in. My dad always said if you want to house something build something suitable for it.

 

[killmak]

I moved from a small city where I had a back yard of 80ft*40ft. Sadly we had a pool so there was not enough room or a safe space for chickens. However the rest of our yard was a vegetable garden and our front yard had fruit trees and raspberry bushes. If we didn't have a pool we would have had hens. Once we moved we immediately got chickens. The smell of our chickens is better than the smell in the city from my neighbour's just being gross leaving trash rotting everywhere. There were more rats in the city too.

Personally I think everyone should be using their land more efficiently. From having gardens and fruit trees to raising chickens. Having a nicely manicured lawn is such a waste of space. We live in a world where big farmers are overusing fertilizer, spraying toxic chemicals to mass produce food, and they are raising livestock in unsanitary, unhuman conditions. We should be disgusted by this and doing everything we can to be more self sufficient. And one of the best things people in the city with yards can do is raise hens.

 

[wkyongae]

Large farms 50 years ago used to be very polluting but now with the high cost of fertilizers and chemicals they aren't anymore. Farmers use very precise machines to apply these products. I am amazed when I see the equipment they use today on YouTube. Very high tech stuff. My Korean wife's mother came to vist from Korea years ago. The one thing she said was "what a waste of precious land just to grow grass that feeds nothing.

 

[killmak]

Yes they are very efficient. They also use so much fertilizer to have bigger yields and the excess runs off destroying the ecosystem of creeks and lakes. Then they use heavy duty pesticides because yield is everything and losing crops or animals to pests is not an acceptable loss to them. Now if chicken farms were not disgusting hellholes both for meat and eggs I could see an argument for banning backyard chickens. But then any ban based on cleanliness should then apply to all outdoor animals including cats, dogs, rabbits.

 

[wkyongae]

I wish there was more soil testing done on nice green yards. Especially for nitrogen run off from over watering. Large farms get tested for run off every year. Can't say a backyard chicken farm ever gets tested for run off or soil erosion caused by chickens.

 

[killmak]

I am not sure where you live but my father owns a 150 acre farm in Ontario and has never been required to have any testing for runoff. I now live in New Brunswick and no farms around here are required to be tested for runoff. I have a feeling backyard chickens that are kept 1 chicken per 200sq ft of land would have much less waste issues than big farms where each chicken lives their entire lives in a 2sq ft cage with 2 other chickens.

 

[wkyongae]

I now live west of Spokane Washington but I grew up on my parents farm in Ohio where they farmed over 200 acres raised over 100000 starter layer chickens and 240 sows and the finisher held over 1400 hogs. They had to soil test. My cousins had over 500 sow operation and finished the pigs and farmed close to 2000 acres and they had to soil test. Chicken manure in Ohio is auctioned to the highest bidder for fertilizer and every farm that buys it has to soil test. At one time I worked as a truck driver/mechanic at a 2000000 bird layer farm. Yup they had to have permits and soil test. So you can see my confusion when I come into town and see the massive amount of chemicals being applied to a yard or a person not cleaning up from their pets to include chickens and they don't get tested for run off or soil erosion.