Raising Urban Chickens in Your City Backyard

The urban chicken revolution is taking off. Individuals throughout the United States, from Kentucky to Kansas to New York to California, are all discovering how easy it is to raise backyard chickens. Canadian urban residents have also jumped on the bandwagon, with recent reports from Vancouver to Calgary to Toronto and Ottawa all showing that city dwellers are getting into backyard chickens. No long is raising chickens perceived as a country or rural hobby. City chickens are here to stay.

"I love raising chickens in my backyard, and I live just outside of a major city in Florda," says Jameson Moore, a backyard hobbyists who has started raising chickens this year. "I thought you couldn't raise chickens in the city, but this whole urban chicken thing really inspired me."

Moore began searching online for other city residents who are raising urban chickens in their backyard. He found poultryOne.com and has never looked back, joining thousands of similar hobbyists who have gotten into the urban chicken hobby.

Chickens, long the mainstay on farms, can now be found in many neighborhoods and suburban subdivisions right inside city limits. "A lot of my neighbors have heard I started raising backyard chickens and are really considering it, too," says Moore. "I love raising chickens for their eggs."

Individuals like Moore also cite eggs as their main reason to start raising city chickens. "It's about being self sufficient," says Cindy Ray from Taylor, Texas. "Everyone keeps hearing about this economic downturn and the recession. People are getting laid off from their jobs and can't find new jobs. It's time to take matters in our own hands. I started raising chickens because it's cheap and it gives me a way to support myself."

The recession may very well be a major cause for this recent interest in urban chickens. Backyard chicken and poultry sites have reported huge surges in city chicken interest. poultryOne.com, which bills itself as the premium online community for backyard chickens, regularly posts news stories that document this interest in chickens. Members constantly chime in, saying that their neighbors have all begun expressing interest in raising chickens in their backyard. And living in a city may have a lot to do with it.

"It's a way to get back in touch with the earth," says Christy Koolawe from Honolulu, Hawaii. "When you live in a city, you can get so out of touch with nature. Raising chickens puts you back in touch with the planet, lets you support yourself and is just plain fun. I wouldn't give up raising urban chickens for anything"