Urban Chicken Farming

[SWMAP]

I really loved the recent essay on a vanished chicken in NYC in the New York Times. It begins like this:
"THE chickens of New York City, for the most part, live fairly sheltered lives, securely tucked into private backyards and padlocked community gardens. Our chickens, by contrast, are public figures — their yard faces 20 feet of busy Bedford-Stuyvesant sidewalk. The chickens themselves chose this bustling thoroughfare, decamping there even when they could have settled in our spacious, semiprivate back garden. They wanted to see and be seen — like so many New York transplants, they seemed to feed on the energy of the street."

For the entire essay about a kidnapped chicken go here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/ga...chicken&st=cse

[DetroitPlanner]

Great idea RO resident! I too am going to scout out chicken locations too. I bet it saved you $$$ off your Kroger bill by having others tend for your chickens and grow your eggs!

[RO_Resident]

Actually, my family raised illegal chickens in Houston when I was growing up. It was during the early 80s.

Of note, we had a rooster for a very short period of time. What a mistake. They are noisy, territorial, and a general pain in the ass. We got rid of him pretty quickly.

The hens weren't much better. At the peak, I think we had 3 or 4 hens. They weren't the best egg layers. What they lacked in egg laying, they made up for it by making a mess. It was a constant battle to keep their coop area clean so mice, rats, and snakes would leave them alone.

After a year or so, we gave up. My parents took the chickens to a farm, where they could live out their days.

[hamtown mike]

Raising chickens is illegal in Detroit.

Is it worth the risk!?!
Why break the law when you don't need to?
Speeding to take your in-labor wife to the hospital, widely acknowledge as an extenuating circumstance.
Making extensive plans for days and weeks to commit a crime when you can already afford chicken?

Put your efforts into something legal and beneficial to your community.
Help bring the food of your choice to market by opening a booth inside your neighborhood grocery.
Or help raise the money to renovate the grocery deli counter and split the resulting sales.
Or have a community meeting with the grocery expressing support for fresh natural/organic meats to be sold at the deli counter.
Or if you really want chickens get together with the criminals raising chickens and ask city council to create a tax revenue generating permit.

I'm in Detroit, so I do what I wanna do!

paint the chickens neon green and photograph them in the Packard. actually that would be pretty cool, a flock of glowing chickens amongst the ruins...

[Detroitus]

My girlfriend and I have 4 hens at our yard in the Noe Valley District of San Francisco. It is legal here to have 4 small animals, including chickens. It is also legal to have a rooster, though because of the noise I would not suggest it.

As for hens, they generally are only loud just before and just after laying eggs. Our Rhodes Island Red, which daily layes very large eggs, several with double yokes, can be very noisy, but if you saw the size of her eggs you'd understand.


Some breeds are quieter than others. Wyandottes, besides being very pretty and docile birds, have a reputation for being very quiet.

Overall, our chickens have been a great addition to our lives and our garden. They keep the weeds down, provide a little fertilizer and are endlessly amusing. Oh, yeh and we get nearly 2 dozen delicious, organic eggs a week.

[jbd441]

Detronic : Here's my chicken info. I live in Northeast Ohio, about 25 miles south of Cleveland. When I was a kid, my Dad ALWAYS had a couple dozen chickens in the back yard. The roosters do crow alot, and fight with each other. The biggest ones, can be mean S.O.B."s. And, like littlebuddy said, too much food, will bring rats. You have to have a sturdy fence, to keep out dogs & foxes. And THEN, when it comes time to " process " your fowl, you chop their heads off, and you have this headless bird flopping around, with blood squirting out. Then he had to pluck the feathers, by dunking them into a tub of boiling water. A nasty smell. Wet, hot chicken feathers. I was too young to do this, but I remember it like it was yesterday. I'm 53 years old now, and I freakin HATE chickens. I don't even like chicken sammiches from MickyD's. Would'nt it be easier to just go to the grocery store, and buy organic eggs? That's just my 2 cents worth. Did I mention, that I HATE chickens!

I feel your pain. My Canadian cousins have a very LARGE chicken farm and when my family would visit, I was put to work feeding the little monsters. Noisy, smelly and mean plus I felt sorry for the conditions in which they lived.... ok I was VERY young then. My cousins gave me two fresh eggs as a reward and I'd put them under light to wait for them to hatch. Could never figure out why my cousins would take pictures of me to show their friends and laugh the whole time they were snapping them..... My parents did draw the line on my cousins forcing me to watch them behead a few....

[MikeM]

You know what's good for chicken-filled yards? Pit bulls.

[GUSHI]

Its Detroit the rats will get them first. LOL

You know what's good for chicken-filled yards? Pit bulls.

[hermousefriday]

It's technically illegal, but if your neighbors are okay with it, it's not going to be a problem. There are hens all over the city. You would think the laws would be even more strict and enforced in the suburbs, but there are "chicken coop building" seminars being advertised throughout metro-Detroit. Haha. Maybe some chickens are noisier than others, but for the most part I think they are quiet and clean. They only lay for about 5-6 years though. After that, you could take them to be slaughtered, if you want. Unless you get attached.

On that note, I say bring more urban farming into the city! I support it 100%.

[JohnnyFreddy]

Uhm.

Hens [[aka "lady chickens") lay eggs with or without a rooster. If there isn't a rooster around, however, the egg won't be fertilized and nothing will hatch from it no matter how long you sit on it.

[[I really hope that this was a fake question. Really, I do.)

UHM....Is this the Courtney I think it is?
If so [[because your style resembles the C. I'm thinking of),
nice to see you here.
I was just talking about you last night [[privately) on facebook.
I agree with you, your comment.
I hope you all know what the heck you're doing.
Free range...good [[within fencing).
Clean, well kept coops...good [[in case you don't know, that's shelter).
Always available water/scratch....good.
I hope as well, that you research this, start small, and care for the lives
in your hands. This matters you know. This is more than a fun experiment,
.....right?
Otherwise....GOOD LUCK!!!!

[cmascoop]

Hi...

My daughter has four chickens in Berkeley, CA and is always supplying our family with good eggs. Which got me to thinking that backyard chickens might be an excellent idea for a story for the Noe Valley Voice, where I am a writer. Do you still live in Noe Valley? Could I do an interview with you about your experiences? I can be reached directly at 510-325-8980 or at newzclick@yahoo.com. All the best. Corey

[detroitgirl]

One of my neighbors down the street has a few chickens. Everytime I go by his house, seeing the chickens brightens my day. They are just so cute!

Much better than the previous tenants who had about a dozen pit bulls instead.

Here's the city ordinance regarding this issue:

Sec. 6-1-3. - Owning, harboring, keeping, maintaining, selling or transferring of farm or wild animals prohibited; exception for circuses, zoos, and other approved activities; separate violations for each animal; disposition of animals in violation of this section.
[[a)
It shall be unlawful for a person to own, harbor, keep, or maintain, sell, or transfer any farm animal, or any wild animal, on their premises or at a public place within the City; provided, that farm animals or wild animals may be kept in circuses, zoos, or laboratories, subject to the approval of the City, where the care or custody is under the care of a trained and qualified animal attendant at all times, whose responsibility shall be to see that such animals are securely under restraint.
[[b)
Each farm animal, or wild animal, that is owned, kept, maintained, sold or transferred contrary to subsection [[a) of this section shall constitute a separate violation of this section.
[[c)
The Animal Control Division is authorized to sell, transfer, euthanize, or dispose of any animal owned, kept, maintained, sold or transferred in violation of this section in a manner consistent with the protection of the public health, acceptable humane practices, and any applicable established City guidelines and procedures.

[black gold man]

[laphoque]

Those chicken races were so much fun! I was saddened to hear the city wouldn't let Temple host the second annual chicken race. The person doing event permits for the city really needs more of a sense of humor and adventure.

[louis]

the police have more important things to do than chase chicken coops, just do you're self a favor and be smart and don't get a roster. their very loud all the time and if enough noise complaints are filed the police will come and fine you a pretty penny.

[theklep]

I used to raise quite a few chickens in the country. I look forward to living in a city that gives you the freedom to keep them. They are fun rewarding and tasty.

[Gistok]

Growing up on the far east side.... there were a lot of Belgians in the neighborhood, and they raised pigeons. Since I wasn't Belgian, I never knew why, but now I have visions of Homer Simpson saying.... "mmmmmmm Pigeon"....

They raised them for food [[Squab)...

[mikefmich]

There certainly is plenty of room in the city to allow them to free range a little bit.

Gistok, my grandpa's family were Belgium and on the east side. Besides squab, I know Uncle Jewell raced them too.