Backyard Chickens!

We love our backyard chickens! (4.00 / 4)

I was raised in the city and have always lived in fairly urban environments, so keeping chickens was never something I thought about doing.  However, my daughter had other ideas.  She lobbied for getting chickens for a couple of years before I decided we could try it.  We looked into local laws and found out they are fine in our town.  We did a bunch of research (including at the backyard chickens site) and  raised our four girls from day-old babies.  I LOVE having them.  The are easy to care for, the eggs are great, and the neighbor kids like to come and play with them.  I'm very glad that I let my daughter talk me in to this!

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by: hinzkj @ Fri Aug 01, 2008 at 20:36:34 PM UTC

awww! you have pictures? (4.00 / 2)

In my former city (Madison) having a few hens was allowed. In San Diego, not so much. The letter of the law requires you to have a huge yard if you want to keep chickens (which basically means no chickens for anybody bc who the heck has a huge yard?) but in practice you can have them so long as your neighbors don't complain. But I live in a studio apt with 3 cats. So chickens are out of the question. They'd be cat food, cat toys, or both.

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by: OrangeClouds115 @ Fri Aug 01, 2008 at 22:33:39 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Here's a couple of pictures... (4.00 / 2)

These are the Rhode Island Reds as babies:
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Here's a pic that includes our Araucana:
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We also ended up with two roosters that moved out to a friend's farm.

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by: hinzkj @ Fri Aug 01, 2008 at 23:10:19 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

One more try... (4.00 / 4)

The babies:

I'm having trouble with my other image.  I'll try again later when my technical help is here!

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by: hinzkj @ Fri Aug 01, 2008 at 23:28:55 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

What do you do with your "old" chickens? (4.00 / 2)

Spouse always had chickens when he was growing up. The "old" chickens that quit laying were killed and eaten.  Very tough meat but as they were fairly poor, it was a necessity that many years ago.  

I think backyard chickens are great if you are allowed to have them in your neighborhood so you can be sure of the quality of the eggs.

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by: Velocity @ Fri Aug 01, 2008 at 22:35:01 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

We don't know yet... (4.00 / 3)

Our chickens are just over a year old, so hopefully have a few good years left in them.  Our current plan is to just let them live out their lives, even if they slow down or stop laying.  We figure they will just be like our dog, cats, guinea pigs, etc., at that point- spoiled pets:)

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by: hinzkj @ Fri Aug 01, 2008 at 23:33:01 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I know a few people who let their chickens (4.00 / 1)

live out their natural lives. One is even a farm that just marks up the price of the eggs to pay for all of the chickens, young and old, whether or not they lay. It's kind of like chicken social security I guess. Makes sense to me.

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by: OrangeClouds115 @ Sat Aug 02, 2008 at 04:46:12 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Peep! (4.00 / 4)

They are pretty funny, now that they're much bigger than that picture and nearly grown up. And they'll sell their sister's souls for a grape.

Even if you don't have chickens, spend a little time in the forum about legal and zoning issues. There's valuable insight about how rules and regulations affect local food. One woman was told that while the city council didn't mind her chickens so much, if they gave in to her, they'd have to let the latinos have chickens. :-o

As it was, he did a deal with a blancmange, and the blancmange ate his wife.

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by: elfling @ Sat Aug 02, 2008 at 00:35:16 AM UTC

We do have a small backyard (4.00 / 2)

We live in a city rowhouse with a small backyard, surrounded by chock-a-block surrounding houses with so many different angles to their various extensions and elevations that it has the feel of being in a narrow box canyon.  The yard is maybe 15 by 20 feet, the back third of it a rqaised bed, and then lotsw of pots and planters along each side wall.

I guess we could have chickens..not sure of the zoning here...but somehow it seems like a lot of work just for eggs.

A half block over from us, at the end of the Italian Market (6 blocks of outdoor vendors of food and sundries) is a live poultry seller.  Pick your chicken, duck, rabbit, or whatever, and they butcher it for you on the spot.  We sometimes hear roosters crowing from the shop,  right here in our very urban area.

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by: DebtorsPrison @ Sat Aug 02, 2008 at 06:13:22 AM UTC