Owning Chickens In The City Nest Egg

If you live in the suburbs, owning chickens in the city is not the worst idea you could have.

In fact, it’s a great idea.

So if you’re thinking about getting into poultry production in your backyard there are some good reasons to do it and there are some bad reasons to do it.

Owning Chickens In The City

Why get Chickens?

• They provide you with manure for your vegetable garden
• They eat household food scraps
• They help in controlling insect in your garden
• You reduce the demand for the inhumane treatment of battery and barn raised chickens
• Chickens have great personalities

The first thing I want you to consider is to make sure that if you are especially within city limits.

You should check your own city or municipal code to know that it’s allowed.

Fund out from your local council what number of chickens you can have in your back yard.

And whether or not you can have roosters because of the noise factor.

Secondly, check with your neighbours to make sure they’re all right with it.

Can Chickens Be Raised In The City?

Urban Chicken Keeping Laws

Now some cities allow chickens in your back yard, while there are others who do not.

In fact, raising your own chickens in your city may be illegal.

It is actually prohibited in many cities and suburbs, unfortunately, but wherever you live.

Find out first from your local council.

If you get caught with chickens in their yard and were forced to find a new home for all of them and am sure that once creating a bond with your chickens it would be heartbreaking.

See also Can Chickens Eat Celery - What Do You Think?

So don’t put yourself in the position.
And of course…

The big benefit of backyard poultry is eggs, you get fresh local maximum quality eggs from a breed of chicken that you chose yourself.

You know what kind of living conditions they’re in how happy they are how much scratching and pecking and flying around they can do.

When owning chickens in the city you know what kind of rations they’re fed.

If you want something to have an all-vegetarian ration.

Or if you want something to have higher omega-3s for your chickens, you can throw flaxseed in that ration, that’s fine.

And you know exactly what kind of life that chicken has had.

Finally, there’s a whole host of other interesting benefits to have in backyard poultry.
The behaviours, and the aesthetics of making sure your place actually feels like a farm.

I want you to remember is that it’s really hard to raise backyard poultry specifically to save money.

It’s not necessarily going to be one of those enterprises that if you’re in it for the short term, or you are just getting started.

That you are going to save a whole bunch of money on your family’s grocery bills.

Poultry products are pretty cheap and pretty available in your grocery store eggs are under a dollar a dozen in a lot of situations.

So think about buying the birds buying the feed setting up the infrastructure that you’d have to keep your birds housed and protected.

That’s going to add up and unless you’re in it for the long haul.

See also The Ultimate Guide to Raising Wyandotte Chickens

It’s going to take a long time for your backyard poultry to really pay for itself.

The chicken runs should be 5 to 10 square feet in size for 4 birds for chickens for larger birds closer to the higher amount you want the site to be relatively high and dry.

If it’s in a low spot that collects a lot of frost or collects a lot of water that can wind up for messy conditions and poor quality of life for the birds and trouble for you.

Especially when you’re trying to clean the thing out you do not want to be on your knees in small places.