Residents find that raising chickens in backyard yields more than crop of eggs

[The Straight Story]

Residents find that raising chickens in backyard yields more than crop of eggs

...

I’m far from alone in my fanatical fascination with gallus domesticus, the domesticated chicken that has graced barnyards and backyards around the world for centuries, providing a daily supply of fresh eggs to keepers enamored of the birds’ individual personalities and primal instincts, not to mention their varying sizes, shapes, colors and feather patterns.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker wrote “The Chicken Chronicles” drawing on her relationships with her flock. And many city dwellers are finding that a few backyard chickens are an integral part of urban homesteading or a fun way to know not just where, but whom, your food is coming from.

But before taking the plunge, there are some important considerations and preparations needed — before you bring your flock home to roost.

The first question: Can I have chickens where I live? In the city of Madison, the answer is a resounding, Yes!

http://host.madison.com/wsj/entertainment/city_life/article_5e42d7ee-7c20-53d1-9488-10c62f72259f.html

[deaniac21]

Fresh chicken is purty special, too.

[era veteran]

1. We can have them in Lexington but no roosters, although

I hear crowing every morning. I am going to get some. I love fresh eggs, they are so damn different from store eggs.

[Desertrose]

2. Dang... too many coyotes & bobcats in my backyard.

[damntexdem]

3. Better watch out: they're sure to come home to roost.

;-)

[Lionessa]

4. When I had a home I had BYC's, and they were wonderful for so much.

Eggs of course, and mine free roamed during the day, barned at night, but in their wanderings through the backyard, I didn't have to buy fertilizer for 10 years and still had the greenest, healthiest lawn around (poop = fertilizer), plus they eat the bugs. Only draw back was new plants didn't do well unless well protected in their young stages, and seeding anything was useless, they'd eat the seeds before anything could sprout.

We had lots of predators around there, but a dog during the day and the barn at night, out of 13 hens, I only lost 2, one to magpies when it was a chick, and one to the puppy (abovementioned dog) before he was properly trained to love the chickens.

[Bozita]

6. Here's hoping you find a new home real soon.

Welcome to DU!

[Lionessa]

7. Thank you! Unfortunately, at my age I doubt I'll recover from

my recent bankruptcy, or find a job with enough income to purchase a house. Just now, I live in my car. I hoped for change for three years, but jobs never came, savings disappeared trying to wait, and now I accept that I'm likely screwed for the remainder of my life.

[kestrel91316]

10. Don't give up hope. Look what this woman did:

http://themobilehomewoman.com/

She bought an $800 rehab-grade mobile home in OH, fixed it up, got her feet under her, and finagled a great deal on a fixer-upper farmette on 3 acres.

Never doubt what a hungry, determined woman can do.

[Lionessa]

12. Fingers crossed. I am trying to manage a move to Portland and

hopefully there will be enough population (and not the regressive, religious nutjobs like around here in Idaho) that a woman with a strong personality and unusual skills can make a go of it. I haven't given up yet, but in order to face each day with a tad of optimism, I feel I have to accept my current situation may be quite long term. I know it sounds odd to find optimism in it, but I'm the type that will obsess about things to the point of kicking my own feet out from under me if I don't accept and then chin up and carry on.

Great story, thanks for posting, perhaps I'll be so lucky.

[Ernesto]

5. Had 'em for 15 years

Chicken house & a 120 sq. ft. fenced run (protects them & my garden).
A great place to get rid of table scraps to help out my septic tank.
NO stinking roosters!

[formercia]

8. Chicken Tractor

http://home.centurytel.net/thecitychicken/tractors.html

...for those with small areas for the chicks to roam. Great for urban areas.

[formercia]

9. Where not to buy chickens

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y8H7-MTqrg&NR=1

[Lars39]

11. I've got one particularly loud rooster behind me right now...crows day and night.

He's really got some lungs on him. :(

[xchrom]

13. Recommend

[MineralMan]

14. We can have backyard chickens here in Saint Paul, MN.

Minneapolis allows them, too. Enlightened cities.

My wife's cousin and her kids keep chickens in Minneapolis. They're great!

[bvar22]

15. We started our flock in 2007,

and quickly came to LOVE these beautiful birds.
They are much cleaner, smarter and more social than we had previously believed.
They have individual personalities, and have become a daily source of delight for us.

They have proved to be a reliable and cost effective year round source of healthy food,
excellent recyclers of table scraps, and providers of super rich fertilizer/compost for the Veggie Garden.
They are a big part of The Whole, and I can't imagine living here without them.

[Liberal_in_LA]

16. chickens are fun to watch. At least I thought so when I was a kid.

[AsahinaKimi]

17. A few years ago

I was visiting a friend in the Mission District of San Francisco. I was surprised when I heard their neighbors had Chickens in their yard. I was not aware that was possible. It may or may not have been legal, but I found it kind of funny to find farm animals in a city like this...than again, people have strange pets here...my neighbor once owned a Boa Constrictor. O.o"