It's Not Too Late to Start Your Urban Chicken Flock

More and more people are discovering that chickens make interesting pets, even in the city. I think it would be hard to find any other animal that provides as much entertainment value as chickens - and as a bonus, your little flock will provide a daily egg or two all summer. Of all the pets I've owned, I believe that my small urban chicken flock has given me the most pleasure for the least amount of work. It's just too bad you can't take them for a walk...

Many large cities allow at least a few chickens to be raised in a back yard, but they do usually require the agreement of any neighbor who might be affected. Portland, Oregon has a limit of three hens per house, without a permit, but more may be allowed if a permit is applied for.

Roosters, those loud early-morning alarm clocks, are not welcome within the city limits for obvious reasons. Since roosters make lousy pets anyway, (they're mean, and can cause severe injuries if they take a dislike to you, as they inevitably do), few people would try to circumvent the no-rooster rule.

Ironically, the small town I now live in has a no-chicken ordinance, although many yards have chickens roaming free in plain sight. In fact, the house on the corner of my block has three chickens, two rabbits, and a miniature dachshund sharing the yard. The only complaints have been against the dog - a yapper with a tendency to nip. The owner freely admits that even the chickens get exasperated with the little beast, but they seem capable of protecting themselves from his bad temper. If your town doesn't officially allow chickens, you might talk to your neighbors and see if they would complain - you might promise a few fresh eggs when they start laying, to encourage them to turn a blind eye to your disregard for the ordinance.

If you start out early in the spring, you can take a trip out to your nearest farm supply store and pick up a few baby chicks. However, I think summer is a better time for building an urban flock, for a number of reasons. First, most farm supply stores can only stock the most commonly purchased chicken breeds, because they can't afford to keep the chicks for more than a day or two. If you want some chickens from one of the silly-looking top knotted Polish breeds, or if you want people-friendly Buff Orpington chicks, your local store probably won't carry them.

You can find an enormous variety of breeds through mail order catalogs, but chicks must be shipped in a fairly large quantity so they can keep each other warm. That works fine for the small farm flock, where 20 or 30 new chicks make sense - but if you can only have three, what will you do with all the extras?

Most male and female chicks are indistinguishable, except by a chick-sexing expert. And the experts aren't always right, so even if the feed store sells sexed chicks, you could still end up with a rooster. Most people who want a few chickens as pets won't want to kill one of their pets once it grows old enough to sport the clear indications of maleness - no matter how mean your juvenile rooster might become.

I think a more rational alternative is to start in the summer and get three hens from a local farmer. You'll enjoy the trip to the country, and you'll be able to ask the farmer a few questions about chicken care. Hens that are getting ready to start laying for the first time can be housed in a shed in your back yard, as long as it has a roost and a box for them to use for a nest. Some people get a bit carried away with designs for their urban chickens - I took the Tour de Coops that is held each year in Portland, and saw some hens living in architecturally designed chicken houses that may have cost more then the house I was living in. If you want to strut your stuff, go ahead, but the hens won't be impressed. Anything that keeps them dry, safe and warm will work just fine.

If you buy young hens in the summer, you'll also avoid all the work and equipment involved in raising the fragile baby chicks. It's even more difficult to raise just three chicks than 30, because they can't huddle against each other to stay warm. With hens, you won't need the heat lamps, the worry about whether they're too hot or too cold, and the bother of fixing up a safe place for them away from your cats, but close enough for you to be able to keep a close watch on them. Bigger birds aren't immune to disease and predators, by any means, but they are much hardier than they were when they were just hatched.

Just one last word about chicken breeds. If you just want a few chickens for your back yard, be sure to choose only from the laying or all-purpose breeds, whether you get chicks or young hens. The meat-type, or broiler chickens, are inappropriate for the average home owner. My brother's wife purchased a number of Cornish Cross chicks a few years ago, and was appalled by their unnatural appetites, which seemed almost pathological. They did nothing but eat - and several of them were unable to stand on their own legs before they were 8 weeks old, because their legs weren't strong enough to hold their weight. It would not have been possible for her to raise the chicks to adulthood, so unless you look forward to the idea of killing your chickens, steer clear of the Cornish Cross and other breeds that have been bred to grow abnormally fast.