. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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 people who have
been wanting
to keep some chickens in their backyard. I hope the pictures and info will
inspire and 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!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Each
season of the year has slightly different requirements for your
chickens. Want to know what to do for your chickens in
all the months?
Click here!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
"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, Australia
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A
re you
on FaceBook? If so, join
the group called: "Fans Of TheCityChicken.com." Over 1,900 members and
counting! Super helpful folks to chat with there, with the convenience
of FaceBook! Your chicken questions get answered *fast!*
Portland, Oregon area: Growing Gardens' 2020
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.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Some of the
publications (click for links) TheCityChicken.com has
been mentioned in:
The New York
Times
The
Los
Angeles Times
USA
Today
Newsweek
The
New
York Times
Slate.com
CNN
Money.com
Apartment
Therapy
Media
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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
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 very last article at 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. . . . 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:
Hens in the heat
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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:
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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 ten 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
"I have read so many different
forums over the last month but
none
compared to your site. It was so
easy to
understand, kept me totally engrossed in
the material while
getting a few laughs in
too. " -- G.K., Sulphur Springs, TX
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Some more ver nice notes from readers of TheCityChicken.com!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
