Chickens

[ElizK]

How do you find out of it is within the code of your area?

We live in the city in an apartment. One of our neighbors two doors down has chickens in their patio. The smell is ghastly but we're not sure what we can do about it.

I'm all for home gardens and wouldn't mind chickens if they smelled nicer.

I can't imagine this being allowed by the apartment complex, nevermind the city. Have you reported it to the complex?

 

[Handbag Lady]

I can't imagine this being allowed by the apartment complex, nevermind the city. Have you reported it to the complex?

Not yet. We work when they are open and they close by the time we get home at night.

We sometimes see the managers on weekends and we'll ask then. We're not even sure if the managers know they are there. We always smelled that smell, but their patio was covered in tarps and we assumed they had a dog that they didn't clean up after. Last weekend, the tarp was removed and there was a pretty chicken standing on top of what looked like a very well used coop.

It was actually funny and we had a good laugh.

 

[ElizK]

Not yet. We work when they are open and they close by the time we get home at night.

We sometimes see the managers on weekends and we'll ask then. We're not even sure if the managers know they are there. We always smelled that smell, but their patio was covered in tarps and we assumed they had a dog that they didn't clean up after. Last weekend, the tarp was removed and there was a pretty chicken standing on top of what looked like a very well used coop.

It was actually funny and we had a good laugh.

Call the office! You shouldn't have to be there in person, I wouldn't think. That's pretty nasty.

 

[PrincessBelle39]

I love having chickens. We currently only have 4 but have had upto 15 at a time. I tend to buy older ones that are rescue hens from the chicken farms. So they don't last as long as we would like. But we like to give them some chance at a life. They are locked up in a secure pen at night as we have quite a few foxes in the area. But they roam over the property during the day. We did build a large fenced in yard for them but have trouble keeping in them in so most of the time we don't bother. The problem is that the foxes are now starting to come in during the day, so we are going to have to rethink that.

 

[3 MEN AND A BOAT]

I have 11 bantam chickens, 8 muscovie ducks, 6 mallard ducks, 3 geese, and 2 goats, they are all kept in a pen surrounding our catfish pond.
I wanna get some regular chickens.
I also grow a samll garden.

 

[pat fan]

We currently have 5 hens (2 Buff Orhpingtons and 3 Barred Rocks). This is our first year, and we started with 8. One turned out to be a rooster so he went to a friend of ours who wanted a rooster, and we have lost 2 to a hawk. No worries about the hawk now as it's winter and we are keeping them in the coop for the winter. (Someone said they shouldn't be in the snow???)

Next year we are moving them to a different section of the yard (our former garden) that is a much larger fenced area and building a bigger coop and getting a few more chicks to replace the ones we lost. We get about 3-4 eggs a day and it's plenty for us and we give a few away when they start to build up. It makes for great easy meals when I haven't got a plan for dinner! Eggs & sausage, quiche, popeye sandwiches....I'm loving it!

 

[si-am]

I probably would have reported them. That's uncalled for. There's no reason for someone in an urban/suburban area to have roosters...If they want to have a full-fledged farm, they should move to the country. I was really afraid that we were going to be reported each of those mornings we woke to the sound of our roosters. We asked our next door neighbor, though, and she said she never heard a thing.

The people a few houses away from us got a rooster the week before Christmas. That thing crowed all day long; I couldn't get any sleep, even on my days off for the holidays! I complained to the county code enforcement office and that rooster was gone within two days... actually, the people abruptly moved out. Apparently they were renters and were found to be in violation of five different things, including the rooster.

I'm sorry, but that's just inconsiderate. If I wanted to hear a rooster all day long, I'd live out in the country on a farm.

 

[skater]

When I was a little kid many of the yards, including ours, in our neighborhood had chicken coops and chickens. This was a typical village neighborhood in the NYC suburbs. The coops were like sheds with chicken wire enclosures. I don't remember how many chickens we had, but my guess would be no more than a dozen.

I can see a return to this self-reliance lifestyle in areas where codes don't prohibit it. There used to be a lot more yards with substantial gardens for growing vegetables, too. I realize it's so much more covenient to drive to the supermarket and bring things home to cook in a microwave, but we've made ourselves soft in the process.

Sounds kind of nice .

 

[pperfectmom]

We started out with 25 Buff Orpingtons last summer and have now thinned the flock to 8 hens and 2 roosters. I LOVE having chickens. We are now getting between 5-6 eggs per day and I am one of the few people who love hearing my roosters crow early in the morning. It was so cute when they were just learning how. Anyone that doesn't want roosters at all has the option of buying "sexed" doodles from the reputable catalogs. We bought ours from McMurray Hatchery and were very pleased. We got the straight run and ended up with way more roosters than hens and had some problems when they started fighting and ganging up on the hens. They are much more content now that the worst offenders are in the freezer.

We also grow a big garden and buy a hog from a local farm and process it ourselves once a year.

 

[U2_rocks!]

We have a baby hen - she's about 6 weeks old now. My DS brought her home from school when she was only about a week old - the school has lots of wild chickens that come in, and one had recently had 4 babies. DS and his friends divided the 4 babies up and each brought one home! I was not prepared for this little creature, and it had to live in our cat carrier when we weren't home and at night when we were asleep. After a couple of weeks she needed more space, so every morning when we left the house we would cover DS' bed with an old shower curtain and leave her in his room (we have no carpets or rugs in the house). At night she got used to sleeping under a large-holed blanket next to his bed - she still sleeps there. But we have let her out to roam a lot more now that she's bigger. We still have to guard her around the cats, but our dog has never bothered her. We don't have foxes or any such predators. We haven't gotten her a coop because we can't decide whether to keep her or not. Right now she sleeps in DS' room at night and hangs out in the house with the kids when she isn't outside filling her craw with worms. She's a really sweet little hen - affectionate and cute. But she's the only chicken at our house, and I wonder if she's lonely not being around her own kind. We know of a farm with free-range chickens that would take her anytime we want a home for her.

 

[tiggger1]

I probably would have reported them. That's uncalled for. There's no reason for someone in an urban/suburban area to have roosters...If they want to have a full-fledged farm, they should move to the country. I was really afraid that we were going to be reported each of those mornings we woke to the sound of our roosters. We asked our next door neighbor, though, and she said she never heard a thing.

then people with the mcmansion's will move to the country and have a fit! I have chickens, goats and horses. my neighbors have 60+ birds including a bunch of roos. they dont bother me one bit! What really bothers me is the neighbor one the street over let your 2 dogs bark for an hour ever morning at 5 am!