The City Chicken

Welcome to TheCityChicken.com. It's a web site to encourage city folks to take the plunge into poultry! You can have chickens...It's easy! I created this website to inspire people who have been wanting to keep some chickens in their backyard. I hope the pictures and info will motivate you to try what you've been wanting to for a long time: Bring a little country into your city life. You are looking at this web site because you've been bit by the chicken bug and need to know how to get started with your chicken-keeping endeavors. Well, you could start here! - - - - - Katy Skinner, the Pacific Northwest, USA. - thecitychicken@yahoo.com

You can pick any kinds of chickens you want! But it's fun to window shop for chickens on the internet! Here are some handy breed selection website pages: Link #1 . . . . . Link #2 . . . . . . Link #3 . . . . . . Link #4 . . . . . . Link #5 And what do all these terms about eggs mean? Cage-free, Free-Range, Certified Organic, Certified Humane, Animal Welfare Approved, United Egg Producers Certified, Vegetarian, Natural, Fertile, or Omega-3 Enriched. . . . . See the bottom of this page of TheCityChicken.com for more details!


Is keeping chickens in your city or suburban backyard legal? The odds are on your side. TheCityChicken.com has a new page: ChickenLaws.html. Check it out! Every city is different. Try looking up your city codes on-line. Most cities have their codes on-line these days. If you can't find a clear answer, try emailing various people at your cities' agency websites. The rules on keeping chickens might be handled by your cities' Animal Control, or maybe it is covered by your County. Don't take the first person's reply as gospel. Every city has different rules, and it might take some research to find out what those rules and laws are. For example, in Portland, Oregon, the rules can be found here: http://www.mchealth.org/vector/nuisance.htm#specanimals . . . . In Portland you can keep up to three hens without a permit. Roosters are prohibited, and if you want to keep more than three hens, you need a permit. . . . . . . . .In some large cities, it's no problem to keep a few hens in your back yard. Yet in some rural towns, you have to submit a proposal to the Town Council and request to keep some hens. Some towns don't approve of chicken tractors, because they can be moved around, and that particular town might require that chickens 50 feet away from all neighbors at all times. So, even though chicken tractors are so practical, they are met with resistance in some towns. I'm certain people don't have to submit proposals when they want to keep cats or dogs. That's nearly considered a right in America. Dogs are allowed to go right up to their fence line and bark at any time they want. Dogs and cats don't have to be kept 50 feet from all neighbors at all times; why chickens? Dogs bark at night way after dark at times, yet hens don't make a peep after the sun goes down. And don't get me started on how many pet cats poop in people's yards. You might start changing people's thinking by getting one of these bumper stickers.


Some videos I’ve taken of my very own chickens: Hens pecking at a 5 gallon bucket Pullets scratching around the raised garden beds An Australorp and a Brown Leghorn in my garden Young pullets that still kind of peep instead of cluck Wait, that's not a chicken! (My pet quail trying to take a dustbath on a cushion.)

Which chickens seem less happy? The hens in the heat or the hens in the snow? Click on the links below to see short videos:

Hens in the heat

Hens in the snow

So you want to get more chickens, do you? Of course you do! They can become an addiction. :) Let's say your neighbor is giving away some hens. Or say you already have chickens but would like a few more, so you go to your local feed store and pick up some irresistible little chicks. Don't put new chickens in with old until you look at the sites below!

How do you introduce the new chickens to the already-established flock? I'll tell you right now: It's not easy. Chickens have a personality that can be cute and curious, and they can turn into a Velociraptor in seconds. And there is no reasoning with them; they run on instincts most of the time.

Here are three pages that give good ideas for attempting to do the near impossble:

http://tinyurl.com/9nofo42

http://tinyurl.com/8pmfur6

http://tinyurl.com/9rdgg9b

What should you do if you have an extra rooster you want to get rid of, or too many hens, or you want to sell your chickens before you move, or you're just plain tired of chickens for some reason that other people should not question because they have not walked a mile in your moccasins?

Don't feel bad about it. I would use and have used CraigsList.com to post an ad giving away or sometimes selling my chickens. You can, too. It can't be guaranteed they won't become dinner for someone, but much more often that not they won't be. However, I personally believe a chicken dinner is a noble end for a chicken. Ooh, controversial! Also try giving away your extra chickens at FreeCycle.org.

We've moved a few times, and one time I gave my homemade coop and hens to a friend, one time I sold the whole lot on CraigsList, and another time I took the coop but sold the chickens to a feed store. When we were setttled in our new house, I raised up another batch of chicks from the feed store. People might think I'm being a little cold in just giving away my pets. But chickens aren't horses or dogs.

They bridge the gap between pets and livestock. So don't feel guilty about your changing life circumstances. If people are wanting to get back to olden times, then we also need to give up some of the modern anthropomorphizing we do with animals.


Have you heard of “compost tea?” It’s adding water to compost and using the resulting water as liquid fertilizer for your garden. You can do it with chicken poop, too! One way is to put a shovel-full of your chicken’s manure into a burlap bag, essentially making a giant manure tea bag of sorts. Put that bag into a five gallon bucket. Let it steep for a week. (Keep any 5 gallon buckets with any kind of liquid in them away from children and pets.) Then, dilute the resulting liquid with plain water. Some people say it should be one part “tea” to nine parts water, to be on the safe side. Then water your plants with it. Don’t add raw or uncomposted chicken manure right on top of your garden or flower beds. I know; I’ve done it. It kills (“burns”) emerging plants. I’ve also killed a plant or two by using undiluted chicken manure “tea.” So learn from my mistakes! Before you try any of the above, read this short article on making and using chicken manure "tea." You don't need a fancy composter to take care of the dirty chicken bedding / litter that your chicken coop produces. Just put it in a pile in a corner of your yard. Wait a year, and then put some pumpkin seeds on the top of the pile, and then enjoy getting an award for your neighborhood's largest pumpkin. :) (Knowing me, I probably wouldn't have the patience to wait a year. I'd probably try putting seeds in the pile right away. Pumpkins are crazy; they might just take off!)


Very nice comments from readers of TheCityChicken.com: "Katy, Thanks for your chicken ark pictures. We didn't know there was such a thing. We think the whole thing is so fun! A mobile chicken house; who ever heard of such a thing? We are going to set ours by the fence and then plant tomatoes when we move it. Thanks again for the inspiration!" --R.H., Lakeland, Florida "Hi there! Thank you so much for the work you have done to your website. I wanted to start keeping some banty hens and a book I bought and read almost had me give up the idea. That is, until I found your site! The book made it sound like a terribly difficult thing, to keep a chicken. I live in the city and my Home Owners Association doesn't allow anything other than dogs and cats, so I had to build the coop and run small and neat…Thanks again and keep up the good work!" ---M.O. "Dear Katy...You BY FAR - have one of the VERY BEST sites I have found. The pictures are great and have given me all sorts of ideas for a chicken tractor and you have such wonderful information included in your site. Thank you so much!!!" ---Cheryl O., Monroe, NC "Dear Katy...I just wanted to write and say thank you for such a wonderful, informative, and inspiring website. I am a newbie at raising chickens, and I have to say that I love it. I really never expected that chickens have so much personality and that they could be so addicting to own!" - - - T.S., Sherwood, Oregon "Dear Katy...Just wanted to let you know that I really enjoying coming back to your site and this time you've have added a lot of new stuff that you're up to. You were the website that gave me the courage to buy chickens and keep them in our dog kennel. We are still loving the chickens, getting 5 eggs a day (soon to be six), and proud to be chicken owners. I'm getting ready to email your site to a friend who's buying her first chickens this weekend. Thanks again." -----Beth, VA

More very nice notes from readers of TheCityChicken.com: