This question could really go into several sections, so feel free to move to the most appropriate one, Mods.
We live in the city and are limited in the number of chickens we can have. We first got our 3 girls in Spring 2006 - two RIRs and an EE. Sadly, we lost one of our RIR's in January. Now that they're over 4 years old, we'd like to add to the flock, but want to find the best way to go about it, especially since we're limited due to zoning. I'm not 100% certain of the number allowed. When we got our girls, the law was that you could have 4 pets, chickens included. Since we had a cat, the number of chickens naturally fell at 3. Now you must specifically obtain approval from the police chief for chickens but the number of pets has been increased to 5. Reading the wording, it appears there may be some flexibility, but I doubt that the number would go over a total of 5 pets without a variance of some sort. For now, I'm collecting data before I approach the official process.
Our girls are our pets, so we do not cull. Eventually, the two older girls will not lay nearly as often, so we're hoping to add some friendly and generally prolific layers to the flock. Here are my questions:
1. What breeds would go nicely with what we already have? We have considered a Barred Rock and perhaps a Salmon Faverolles, both of which we can likely get locally as chicks. The breeds we choose must be quiet (close neighbors), friendly (we have kids), and, if possible, non (or rarely)-brooders (due to the limited number of birds we can have and no roosters/hatching going on). Please feel free to suggest other options.
2. I know this is a dangerous question with this bunch at BYC
but how many should I aim for getting? We're thinking either 2 or 3. I'm thinking that 3 might be better, on one hand, because they'd outnumber the old gals. But, since the older two are already 4 years old and our cat is almost 18, that will likely give us the opportunity to add additional chickens later and we'd like to leave some room for that. Any thoughts on that?
3. The coop is plenty big enough (4 X 5) but will need another nest and for the run to be increased in size. We're thinking we'll set up a separate, attached run with a temporary coop inside for the little ones until the entire flock can be combined, then remove the barriers once the flock is getting along well enough. Any thoughts on this idea?
Thanks for your thoughts.
We live in the city and are limited in the number of chickens we can have. We first got our 3 girls in Spring 2006 - two RIRs and an EE. Sadly, we lost one of our RIR's in January. Now that they're over 4 years old, we'd like to add to the flock, but want to find the best way to go about it, especially since we're limited due to zoning. I'm not 100% certain of the number allowed. When we got our girls, the law was that you could have 4 pets, chickens included. Since we had a cat, the number of chickens naturally fell at 3. Now you must specifically obtain approval from the police chief for chickens but the number of pets has been increased to 5. Reading the wording, it appears there may be some flexibility, but I doubt that the number would go over a total of 5 pets without a variance of some sort. For now, I'm collecting data before I approach the official process.
Our girls are our pets, so we do not cull. Eventually, the two older girls will not lay nearly as often, so we're hoping to add some friendly and generally prolific layers to the flock. Here are my questions:
1. What breeds would go nicely with what we already have? We have considered a Barred Rock and perhaps a Salmon Faverolles, both of which we can likely get locally as chicks. The breeds we choose must be quiet (close neighbors), friendly (we have kids), and, if possible, non (or rarely)-brooders (due to the limited number of birds we can have and no roosters/hatching going on). Please feel free to suggest other options.
2. I know this is a dangerous question with this bunch at BYC
3. The coop is plenty big enough (4 X 5) but will need another nest and for the run to be increased in size. We're thinking we'll set up a separate, attached run with a temporary coop inside for the little ones until the entire flock can be combined, then remove the barriers once the flock is getting along well enough. Any thoughts on this idea?
Thanks for your thoughts.
