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Report: Illicit urban chicken movement growing in US
By Eoin O'Carroll | 10.08.08
The Worldwatch Institute reports that a growing number of US city-dwellers are raising their own chickens, often in defiance of local ordinances.
Citing unsanctioned henhouses in Denver, Boston, and other cities, Worldwatch’s Ben Block notes that an “underground ‘urban chicken’ movement has swept across the United States in recent years,” flouting authorities’ concerns about noise, odors, and public health.
But in some cities, such as Ann Arbor, Mich., Ft. Collins, Colo., South Portland, Maine, and Madison, Wisc., owners of these clandestine coops have successfully changed the laws to allow them to keep a limited number of hens. (Roosters, whose characteristic crowing can disturb neighbors, are usually more restricted, but they’re not needed for hens to lay unfertilized eggs.)
Many large US cities, including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, and Seattle apparently never thought to ban the domesticated fowl within city limits. These cities have served as an incubator of sorts for the emerging movement, in which urban henkeepers post online tips on building coops, caring for the birds, and fending off raccoons and other predators.
Laws vary from city to city. The City Chicken, a popular urban chicken website, maintains a list of local laws, but it is far from comprehensive. Municode.com also keeps a list of ordinances for selected cities. In many cities, would-be chicken owners need to obtain a permit from local health or animal-welfare authorities.
The benefits of keeping hens are myriad, say proponents. According to the website BackyardChickens, considered authoritative in the online urban-chicken-enthusiast pecking order, three hens will net you, on average, two eggs a day. And the eggs are said to be tastier and more nutritious than the ones you can get at a supermarket. Hens also perform some gardening work by eating weeds and pests and depositing a high-quality fertilizer. Many also claim that the birds make great pets, but this is debatable.
Urban chicken buffs also claim that, once you’re all set up, the birds are relatively low-maintenance. The UK-based company Omlet sells popular ready-made coops starting at about $500. Their “Eglu,” which looks like a late-90s Macintosh computer, comes with a chicken run and a feeder. Chickens can be purchased separately from the company for $15 each.
Some, but not many, urban henkeepers opt to raise their chickens indoors. The birds cannot be toilet trained, but at least one company sells chicken diapers.
The blog Urban Chickens gives a rundown of the regular maintenence required to keep your chickens well-fed, comfortable, and odor-free. The blogger says his routine goes like this:
• Every day: fill the food bowl, change the water, check for eggs, add wood chips to the nesting box if needed. (takes 5 minutes)
• Twice weekly: empty the droppings out of the Eglu, very easy to do by design, thanks Omlet! (takes two minutes)
• Weekly: clean the Eglu by rinsing and scrubbing the interior parts (20 minutes)
• Semi-monthly: purchase 50-lb. bag of Layena Crumbles at the feed store (cost is $12 and is worked in with other errands)
A hen’s productivity will drop off after two or three years. After that, the hens will continue to produce high-quality eggs, but at a slower rate. Those who wish to eat their chickens (that is, people who dispute the assertion that they make great pets) should know that in many cities different laws apply for chickens raised for eggs and those raised for slaughter. For those too squeamish to do the deed themselves, some communities have mobile slaughterhouses that will come to your home and do it for you.
The rising popularity of urban chickens has many city officials brooding over public health concerns, particularly avian flu (of which there have been no reported cases in the United States). According to Worldwatch, officials have threatened to restrict poultry in cities in East Asia, Australia, and British Columbia. Worldwatch also cites an expert who advises owners to keep their coops covered to protect their chickens from wild bird dropppings, which are said to transmit the disease.
But others argue that chickens are no more likely to carry the disease than, say, pigeons, which are already common in cities. What’s more, as Worldwatch points out, the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production found that factory-farmed poultry poses a greater risk for the disease than backyard chickens.
In many cities, the policies regarding domestic fowl are by no means settled. In September, the Boston Globe reported on a Lynn, Mass., man’s battle wth “loosey goosey” laws over his chicken coop. And this YouTube video, posted in July, has several Chicago officials on tape falsely telling an aspiring chicken owner that the birds are prohibited within the city.
This kind of ambiguity could mean more and more henkeepers unwittingly finding themselves on the wrong side of the law. As the urban chicken movement spreads, local authorities will have to set clearer policies to help those chicken owners get to the other side.
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2. Dorothy | 10.08.08
You can easily raise chickens in your back yard,just make sure your nosey neighbors cant see them,,Raising chickens is a fun and rewarding hobby,,And with the prices of eggs now days,,its the way to go..
3. Mariachi Tesoro | 10.08.08
I think this is a great idea. I’d love to have chickens if I lived in the country. But, in the city I would be afraid of the smell. I love to eat chicken so much, I’d need at least 20 in the flock at all times. I’d have to be buying chicks each week. And, I’d have to learn to pluck and dress them, wouldn’t I? Now you have me wanting chicken. I’ll stop by the grocery store on my way home and pop one in my rotisserie. Yeah, I have one. Set it and forget it!!
4. dairmuid | 10.08.08
I live in Seattle, and we have 8 chickens. They are extremely entertaining due to the fact that they are dumb as stumps! My husband and I take great pleasure watching them run around, scratch for food, then fight over it. The only downside is that they [Eoin’s note: Ahem] all over the sidewalks, but on the other hand they’re also fertilizing the yard. They also like to get into the vegetable garden - they nibble on the lettuce and the asparagus, and peck at the low hanging tomatoes. Still, the eggs are delicious, more nutritious than those at the grocery store, and plentiful! And we will definitely be eating them as soon as egg production tapers off. I take exception with the article though - my chickens are pets. They have names, and I hold them and pet them, and they follow me around for treats. They’re pets all right - pets that I’m going to eat when they’ve outlived their usefulness.
5. Deborah | 10.08.08
Right now I’m living in Amman, Joran. The sheepherder down the street also has chickens. I love waking and hearing the roosters. I look forward to the walks over to the olive field to drop off the vegetable scraps.
While walking we found six chickens living with four turkey hens and two toms in a vacent lot with a modified house. They graze through the neighborhood. We can only hope they never conform to all our laws against nature.
6. walterrhett, Charleston, SC | 10.08.08
My grandmother raised ‘em, but I never thought they would come back!
8. Ken | 10.09.08
We have two rhode island reds and I plan to get buff orpintons come spring. We love them and get two fresh eggs most days. They are indeed intertaining and cheap to raise. A 50# bag of feed last 2-3 months. They keep the weeds and bugs down. Give a few extra eggs to your neighbors and complaints will be far and few between.
9. Raven | 10.09.08
50 years ago my Dad used old coaster-wagon wheels on reinforcing-rod axles (he could have used bicycle wheels) to build a 4′x5′x4′ rolling chicken-coop with wire floor and fiberglass roof. He moved the wheeled hen-house each morning to even out the droppings from our 5 hens over our lawn in Houston. This minimized smell; hens were fed in, and roosted in the coop; otherwise they happily scratched in our fenced yard during the day. The wheeled coop had a door at the side of the front, which we latched at night after the hens went in for the evening to roost on three broom-handle perches. When it got cold Dad would throw a tarp over the coop, and pull it into the garage overnight, having first put newspapers on the garage floor where it would be. Southerners should build wheeled coops, they are quite clean and compact.
10. Michal H | 10.09.08
I had chickens for several years in my suburban back yard. I loved it, you just can’t beat the high quality eggs and the chickens are fun to watch. I had 5 for a year and then went to 10. I must say I prefer 5 as the chickens get along with one another better. I gave my chickens to a friend with a farm when I moved into a neighborhood that has chicken restrictions last year. I think I am going to get some more in the spring. You can buy chickens at a local feed store for $3 to $5 a piece and you can house them in just about anything. I built a plywood box 4 X 4 X 4 feet, cut and a chicken sized opening at the bottom and hung a nesting box inside and a medium sized stick for a roost. I laid an oversized piece of plywood over the top as a roof and just lifted it to get at the eggs. Total Cost US$75. The best benefit was that I canceled my pest control service. I had fewer bug with chickens than I did with the pest service. I live in central Texas and there are Lots of bugs.
11. steve | 10.09.08
Marvin: Your cat will be charged with felinious behavior if it kills a chicken.
12. john | 10.09.08
We have raised chickens for years, particularly liked the Black Austrolorp and everyone marvels at the green and blue eggs our Araucanas lay. Sometimes we throw in some of the sex link varieties who are prolific layers but short on personality.
Can’t see they payback on an Eglu at $500, kinda defeats the purpose. Be creative with a plastic swimming pool and some chicken wire and save yourself $450.00. Reminds me of my neighbor who bought a hybrid for $32000 to get 40 mpg. My old pickup gets 25 mpg and cost $2000. But she has a new car and I don’t. Jyst need to be honest with yourself about what you really want; eggs or a cutesy pet cage for what is not much of a pet.
13. Steve in SC | 10.09.08
I keep my flock (1 rooster and 6 hens) in a mobile coop called a Chicken Tractor. There are many plans on the web. I drag it across my garden beds and lawn to enrich the soil. It also protects your birds from predators.
14. Kathi | 10.10.08
My girls run all over the neighborhood as we live in a rural town. If your cat kills a chicken, it is a brave cat, as my cats have been chased before. The neighbor dogs even leave the girls alone, but that’s probably because I’m on good terms with all of them and have explained the rules. No kidding. The buff orpingtons like to brood, and mine hid out long enough to hatch babies one year. the black australorps lay lots of eggs and don’t seem to want to set. I’m glad to see that there are lots of others out there who enjoy their birds, as I do.
15. Dirk Bakken | 10.11.08
I would love to have back yard ckickens. I live in an area where it is possible. There are 4 dogs in my apartment building, and countless more walking by on the sidewalk. I am just trying to imagine the dogs barking at those chickens running around, 24 hours a day! The neighbors would squid!
16. Marilyn | 10.11.08
I remember going for a visit to Cuba shortly after Fidel decided that the nationalised chicken factories were not doing a good job and all the chickens should be sold off to anyone who wanted them.
There were chickens everywhere - anyone who could scrape up a few pesos bought as many as they could.
Chickens in the atria of homes, chickens in coops on the roof, chickens on apartment balconies and chickens in the dining room under the table. It was wild, especially when they got big, but the food potential was worth it as the fish ration was 100g per adult per month, meat was probably half that and I don’t remember any eggs at all. Of course the promised rations quite frequently didn’t turn up either. I never saw meat in a Cuban home that wasn’t from the black-market, and of course you had to have access to dollars and good contacts to get that. Sorry, getting off topic . . .
17. Russ Finley | 10.11.08
Watch out for the chicken hawks. One recently ate my daughter’s bantum right in the middle of Seattle: http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/9/24/92442/8827
18. Joseph Hiddink | 10.11.08
In many Asian countries, like Indonesia, the chicken is a staple food. They do not get fed.
They live on eating insects all day and wahtever is left over. The poor animals are at night attacked by the mosquitos and their combs are someties bleeding. Then they are eaten themselves.
19. Michael Manfre | 10.13.08
This is definitely a growing trend and more cities will be faced with citizens wanting their hens to be legal. I’m currently pushing for an ordinance change in Cary, NC. More info can be found at http://carychickens.com
20. Lisa, Washington DC | 10.14.08
Hmm. While commuting on my bike from my urban neighborhood to downtown Washington, DC, I thought that was a chicken I saw as roadkill. Now I know it wasn’t a pre-coffee illusion.
21. Dan Birdsall | 10.14.08
I had a bunch of chickens come to watch me lay a patio the other day. They didn’t think I could do it!
22. Lucy Peckham | 10.15.08
In Anchorage, Alaska, a group of us has been working hard for over four years to get the city codes changed to allow hens. We’re nearly there. The language of the new law has been approved and we are just waiting for it to be adopted. It’s extra work to keep chickens in our climate, but very worth the effort. Fresh eggs are tastier, and with shipping costs raising the grocery bill up here, they are cheaper too!
23. jillbilly | 10.15.08
We kept a hen in our Chicago backyard for two summers (they wintered on the farm), and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. An overzealous alderman tried to pass a ban last summer, but the strong ethnic Hispanic community and the eco-foodies managed to forestall it. It’s amazing how much personality chickens have, being so far down the food chain. One of mine clucked for her feed every morning, except when she knew I’d been up late - seriously. I kept them in a med-sized dog crate with the bottom tray left out (tried to let them run free, but they escaped the yard every time) and most of the neighbors never even knew they were there. Sadly, the last one was killed by a stray dog. When I get over the trauma, I’ll get another one.
24. Misty | 11.03.08
We have 4 chickens is our backyard, and they are wonderful. They get along fine with our cats and our dog, who is a pointer cross. They even do well with the neighbor’s German Shepard and Rottie. The best part is that we get fresh eggs everyday, they keep down the insect populations, help with the weeds, and provide wonderful fertilizer for the garden. Oh, and they even chase the squirrels away, which is a big plus in our neighborhood! Our chickens are very friendly, and I love how they run to meet us at the gate. They are so much fun! They do not stink, and they do not make too much noise–much less than a dog does, that’s for sure!
25. Kelly | 11.16.08
Good luck with chickens and dogs. After raising chickens for 30 years my experience with dogs is that they can decide on a chicken dinner at any time. My neighbors dog was fine for several years. Then while I was at work I came home and my neighbor told me his dog brought one of my chickens to his house. This dog took one at a time after years of not bothering them.
26. John van Gurp | 02.10.09
Here in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada we are working with municipal council hoping to have bylaws changed to allow backyard birds. Municipal planning staff tabled a report they had developed over a 12 month period, clearly intended to derail any plans to permit chickens. The power of the Internet was demonstrated however in the great deal of very accurate and meaningful information supporters were able to provide to the councilors. Really, it need not be complicated or controversial. It’s about people engaging in a harmless hobby on their own private property. Whether or not eggs are a result is a moot point. It’s about keeping quiet pets, end of story. Those who oppose it seem to base their objections on groundless and unsubstantiated fears. The very few people I know who would actually take advantage of a bylaw and raise birds would be very community minded, careful to please neighbours, and fastidious coop keeping types. We are suggesting that if Council can’t give blanket approval, they at least allow a pilot project with a limited number of participants. See how it goes… evaluate after 12 months, etc. No risk and a chance to show leadership.
27. John van Gurp | 02.10.09
I should point out also that I am aware of two families who already keep chickens on the peninsula of Halifax. No complaints and no issues but they are very careful to keep it quiet due to the potential for heavy handed bylaw enforcement actions. They live in fear of government reprisal, because they keep a couple of quiet hens. Sad state of affairs.
28. likes clowns | 05.03.09
what would be the best way to build a coop for 2 rosters and 4 hens? this is only the second time i have tryed to raise chickens. the first time ended when my 5 cats and 1 dog ate the 10 chickens that i got.
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1. Jennifer | 10.08.08
Happy urban chicken owner here…we love our chickens (who are affectionate, enjoy petting, and follow us around begging for treats) and the delicious eggs they give us! Having chickens has also given us more motivation to spend time outdoors and given our neighborhood a view of the country. We’d recommend a small happy flock to anyone!