Urban chicken farming under fire

No, they mainly worry about the smell, and chickens do stink. Now I assume Rod keeps his chicken coops clean, but not everybody does, and nothing stinks worse than chicken sh*t.

You've got to entice your hens back into the coop on their own...with feed or some such. Also, chickens don't like an unclean coop just as humans don't. Learn how to tell when a hen is getting 'broody'...I believe you've got a lot to learn...best wishes.

My first day at a Catholic Junior High had me visiting some new friends who lived in an ethnic blue collar neighborhood. In their backyard I found a large pen with a couple of dozen of rabbits. When I asked the new friend if I could take one out and pet it he said no. Still looking I asked him what their names were. He laughed and said, "We don't name em, we eat dem tings".

When I considered getting some goats to eat all the honeysuckle, poison ivy, scuppernog vines and other scrub growing up around her place I went to city hall and found the ordiance concerning non-domestic animals. They can be kept in the city limits as long as they are not within 80 feet of the lot line. That rules out most lots in the city. I can't remember what they said about chickens and rabbits.

I got into the urban chicken thing here in Venice (Los Angeles) six years back with -- initially-- six Araucana hens. Red tail hawks got a couple of them, the neighbor's Akita got two that flew over the fence. It was great to have fresh green eggs and I enjoyed watching them scratch around in the compost and even hunt velociraptor-like for sparrows and even mice. Okay, that part didn't fit in with the whole Franciscan/Peaceable Kingdom backyard theme.

The day the moonsuited guys showed up at the front door demanding to see the chickens and then took swabs to their rear ends was surreal. How in the world whatever government agency that was knew to come to my house to check for exotic Newcastle disease is beyond me.

Anyway, the last chickens went to live in another backyard when I got tired of them free range-ing and scratching up all the vegetables.

Good luck to all you urban backyard stockmen.
(I really want to get miniature cattle and horses and goats, but my wife has more sense)

Back in the 1930s, my grandfather had a full chicken operation in his backyard in Fort Worth; hen house, 1 rooster with a "harem" of hens, chicks, eggs, layers, fryers, the whole thing. The kids were raised seeing their dad wring the chickens' necks before dinner and took it in stride as part of the cycle of life (except for one chicken who figured it out and ingratiated herself to the kids by sitting on their laps, and became a "named" pet--Henny Penny).

It was in a regular neighborhood. Lots of people did that, but at some point along the, the laws were changed for reasons of sanitation.

As for me, I'd love to have an angora goat--I like goat milk, and I knit; it would be fun making my own yarn from the long silky hair.

But in my neighborhood, I'd never be able to do that, unless I could convince everybody that it's a dog.

We're up to 8 bantams, at the moment. (Frizzles are my favorite, since they're flightless and a little easier to herd.) I'll say in defense of cranky neighbors that we had to get rid of our own standard chickens because my wife couldn't stand the noise. And it's pretty common for even the quieter banties to wake us up in the morning.

Now, we like the birds, but all the other houses on the block might not be so enamored.

Not that their dogs and cats and music is so quiet.

I live in an upper-middle class HOA restricted subdivision in the wealthiest county in Tennessee, and my neighbor has a rooster on his 1/5 acre lot, which is clearly a violation of the HOA and the city laws. I'm really at odds with myself, as in my 'crunchiness' I think it's great he has a rooster. However, the durn thing keeps waking me up at 5:30, so I'm thinking about calling it in to the Po-lice.

Minneapolis and many surrounding communities allow chickens with certain restrictions. Local co-ops are offering classes on urban chicken-keeping and the classes are filling up as soon as announced.

I wouldn't worry too much about avian flu from a few backyard birds. The outbreaks in the US are in the huge (and misnamed) "biosecurity" barns. Birds stacked up on top of each other in cages have weakened immune systems. The outbreaks of avian flu in Europe and Asia follow highways, not bird migration flight patterns.

The organic flocks in the Midwest are all kept outdoors. The commercially-raised flocks are in the wild bird migration flight patterns and landing zones. Not a case of avian flu in the decades they have been raising them.

Just don't get too intimate with the critters - don't kiss them, wash your hands immediately after contact, and do not touch your face before you do that.

Rod--prop up the chicken tractor on one end, and put the food and water inside it. Do you have a place inside it to roost, off the ground? Do these things, and the chickens will return to it at dusk.