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TheCityChicken.com table
of contents:
MAIN PAGE . . . . . . . . . CHICKEN TRACTOR GALLERY . . .. . . . . . . .PICTORIAL HISTORY . . . . . . . . . . .F.A.Q. . . . . . . . . . . .ARTICLES . . . . . . . . . . CHICKEN LAWS . . . . . . . . . . . BROODING CHICKS . . . . . . . . . HEN HOUSE of the MONTH . . . . . . . . .THE SCOOP ON POOP . . . . . . . . . . . BEAUTIFUL CHICKENS |
  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! |
What
to do for your chickens in October 2016:
Let chickens roam free in your yard at your own risk! Dogs can appear out of nowhere. At a couple of places I lived, we had a fully fenced yard, but in the middle of the night at one place in the suburbs, a dog hopped the fence, broke open a chicken tractor door, and distributed one of my hens all over the neighborhood. It wasn't a feral dog; it was just a dog that some owner thought it was okay to let roam free. Yet, in Portland Oregon, for example, chicken owners are the ones that have to get permits. Portland is lucky in that you don't need a permit to have three or fewer hens. But if you want four hens? You have to apply for and pay for a Specified Animal Facility permit to be legal. See TheCityChicken.com's laws page to see if you can find the current laws in your town. If you know the laws in your city, send 'em in to me and I'll put them up on the above page!
As I harvest
the last edible things from my garden, sometimes I throw the
trimmings and spent plants into my chicken pen. Another thing I’ve
discovered I think is really fun for some reason: I pull out long
grass from along the fence line that has gone to seed, and any weeds,
and throw them right on the lawn. |
  "Hey
Katy, I
couldn't not write to you and say thanks for being so
adorable! So this is just a quick email to tell you I've
spent far too much time over the past two days on
your website (when I should be working and doing
chores and things)! We decided last week it was time to
"turn our kitchen scraps into eggs" and become a
little more self-sufficient. Getting a few laying hens
is our start point. Your site and its wealth of
friendly information (and warnings - no pens with 4
exposed corners: got it!) as well as the pictorials are
giving us countless ideas for our first hen house,
which we're going to name The Diggers Club (because
we're from Australia and our first day of foraging in
our garage for things to make our A-frame ex-swingset
house from just happens to be falling on our ANZAC Day
public holiday, which comemmorates our "diggers" and
servicemen and women)! Thank you so much. I'm so
excited about our project, haven't kept chickens since I
was a kid. And now I'm just a big kid ;-) I'll be
back, for sure. In fact, I may have to give myself
time limits for visiting your website or I'll
never get anything done again! Cheerio," ---Kirrily W.,
Melbourne, Austrailia |
|
Portland, Oregon area: Growing Gardens' 2016 Tour de Coops! Growing-Gardens.org is seeking a wide range of coops to feature on this year's tour. Do you have a coop that you would like to show off to the community? To receive an interest form, visit here! *Event happens every year!* Do you live in the Pacific Northwest? Do you want to go to a poultry show? You get to just wander around and view breed after breed of crazy and cool chickens! Find an event near you at this site, and write it on your calendar! Here is a great site that lists upcoming poultry shows and events (public welcome, always free!) in OR, WA, CA, MT, ID. Portland, Oregon area: Introduction to Urban Chicken Keeping workshop. . . Learn the basics of raising happy, healthy chickens for fresh eggs. *Event happens every year!* For more information or to sign up contact Rodney at GrowingGardens.org. Burns Feed Store, Gresham, Oregon is having a Poultry Seminar with Dr. James Hermes. *Event happens every year!* OSU Associate Professor and Extension Poultry Specialist. Location: Guide Dogs For The Blind, 32901 S.E. Kelso Rd., Boring, OR 97009. Find out more here and here. Have you guys seen any eps of "Portlandia"? Here's a really funny clip from it, re: the "organic" chicken-meat trend. :) |
 Some of the
publications (click for links) TheCityChicken.com has
been mentioned in: |
  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. |
  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:
|
 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 a cake-walk. 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 just need 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:
"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!          |
| TheCityChicken.com table of contents: MAIN PAGE . . . . . . . . . CHICKEN TRACTOR GALLERY . . .. . . . . . . .PICTORIAL HISTORY . . . . . . . . . . .F.A.Q. . . . . . . . . . . .ARTICLES . . . . . . . . . . CHICKEN LAWS . . . . . . . . . . . BROODING CHICKS . . . . . . . . . HEN HOUSE of the MONTH . . . . . . . . .THE SCOOP ON POOP . . . . . . . . . . . BEAUTIFUL CHICKENS |
Interestingly,
I let my chickens out in the yard during the day more in the winter
than in the summer, in consideration of my garden.
