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I wish I had an urban chicken coop but it's against by-laws for my city. If you do find someone, I hope you can discuss the legal issues of urban poultry farming and how they dealt with them.

i want chickens. i really really want chickens.

Hey Kuri, the laws against chickens have never sat well with me either. I understand there are sanitary issues that need to be considered when you have animals without much space. But rather than out-law them completely, it seems like cities could write sanitary codes, limits on birds, etc. It bothers me that a cheap, sustainable (from both environmental and financial point of view) source of food is illegal for people, especially for people who struggle to afford life's necessities. And the birds would have a better life than in the factory farms.

I'd love to- I grew up raising chickens in a suburb of Seattle. Now that I live in Pittsburgh (city proper) I'm forbidden to keep chickens. I too am irked that they are outlawed outright, rather than just having health codes. Then again- this is the same city that outlawed sugar gliders and hedgehogs, and actually enforces this fairly actively.

Here in my city we are allowed so many chickens per sq feet. I think on my subdivision, saltine-sized lot, I could have up to six. I was researching it at one point and had figured out all the logistics, even down to splitting an order of pullets with a somewhat local farmer because they came in loads of 30. Yikes! There are so many great websites, and mobile coup ideas as well as forums that cater to just the urban chicken lover. I wish I had saved the links now.

In the end it was a choice between a dog or chickens, so we got a Great Dane. Because the dog is raw-fed, mostly poultry, I'm not sure if we can ever have chickens with her around, though I'm pretty sure a strong permanent coup could do the job.

@Ether - Hedgehogs are "legal" here in AZ, but the requirements are such that it's normally impossible for someone to met those stipulations, even some zoos. Isn't that wild that they'd cause such a fuss over a hedgehog?!

I live in a high rise that is a mix or rental property and condo's so I also do not have my own chickens. However, I have found the next best thing. I have a man I call Jim down at my local farmers market who sells me both the chicken and eggs. Jim operates a chicken co-op with his neighboring farmers. They work together to produce free range organic chickens in smaller coups to help maintain the natural pecking order. Doing this leads to happier (and tastier!) chickens who produce more eggs than even other free range chickens. It also makes me feel better about what I'm eating.

My parents have always raised chickens (not in the city, or suburbs, in the country), and I just wanted to say that the eggs ARE immeasurably better. The yolks are a bright orange color, and have sooo much more flavor than grocery store eggs. However, the smell around the farm on the day that they clean out the hen house would make me very wary of inflicting chickens on close neighbors. Although my parents do have over 100 chickens, so the scale is obviously a little different!

I certainly don't live in an urban (or even suburban) area, but I do keep ducks (and geese, and chickens). Everyone always talks about urban chickens, but ducks are (I think) much friendlier and lay delicious eggs. In fact, most of my ducks lay 300 eggs/year, which is way more than most chickens lay.

I wonder if you could skirt some of those "no chicken" laws by having ducks? Ducks are waterfowl, so they don't even necessarily fall under "No poultry" laws. And they are funny and sweet and don't actually need lots of water to play in (though they certainly love it).

leenwebb, how much space do you need for a couple of ducks? Is it mean to have just one? I'd love a duck, especially if it's producing all of those eggs. But we have a small city plot, not sure if it's feasible.

A happy chicken's lifespan is about 7-15 years. Do you have the commitment to clean up chicken poop from your back yard for the next 7-15 years?

I live with in the city of Portland and I keep chickens. I love it. It is easy, fun, and super rewarding--from eggs to compost the chickens are a great part of our urban footprint. We have a normal sized lot with a small yard and have tucked the chickens (4) behind the garage with a run on the back side of the house where nothing really grows well anyway. They eat our scraps, eat bugs, give us amazing eggs, are fun for our kid and the neighbor kids, are really friendly, give us great poop for our yard, and are very low maintenance. The most difficult part by far was building the coop, but once that was done, just a cleaning every week or so and gathering eggs! They can be a bit loud during the day, but no louder than the neighbor dogs, and no one has ever complained. We keep them out of the yard and off the patio, due to excessive pooping, but they have plenty of space and are quite happy. If your city permits it, by all means, get chickens. They are great fun!

I don't have chickens, but but my next door neighbors do. And, while I like animals, I am not happy about the chickens. I'm sure it has more to do with these particular chicken owners but I have had to put up with: rooster crowing at all hours, chickens flying over the fence and into my yard, raccoons killing chickens and leaving the remains in my yard, and in the summer, the smell. I live in a large east coast city where chickens are illegal. And I certainly understand why.

SFGail, you *definitely* need more than one -- they don't call it a flock of ducks for nothing. Some places have a minimum of some crazy number like 15, but the place I get mine has a minimum of 6, which is much more reasonable. (If you have a local breeder who you can go pick up from, you can get away with only 2 or 3. 6 is the minimum to maintain good body heat when they send them in the mail.)

You can keep 6 in the average (1/4 acre lot) suburban backyard, if you don't mind having them wander through your flower beds. They don't destroy things like chickens do, though they sure do love to eat the leaves off of my bean plants. :)

Leenwebb, I sure have enjoyed your posts. My S/O and I are getting some chickens, and I wanted to get ducks as well. We live in a rural area, so don't have any restrictions to deal with. In fact, those restrictions were one big reason for selling my house in a tightly restricted suburban county -- I was tired of being policed for everything.

Anyway, thanks for all the info!