the urban chicken

It has been a busy week -- for me, not the chickens. The chickens seem to be learning the extent of the yard and its boundaries. I don't have fence up everywhere and they still stray a bit but when they see me coming they know to run back into our yard. This beats seeing me, with sticks in both hands, ambling around behind them like a zombie scarecrow trying to herd them home.

The girls have adult tail feathers in and strut around the yard like they own it. They're about half or three-quarters full size and every morning when I open their coop I'm pretty sure they've grown a little bit overnight.

As a special treat we have a communique from Spencer the owner of the other half of this chicken family:

Tell your ladies (lay-dees?) that their 5 sisters say hello: Fussex (a.k.a. Jackie Brown), Glamour Chicken, Shelly (Glamour Chicken's twin sister), Chickenbutt (whose tail feathers are now grown back in) and Peckerhead (literally peck-her-head). Most of these gals pretty much named themselves. Oh, and they LOVE rose petals and chopped up apples.

It's good to see that the other half of the original flock is well and that someone else is far more creative with chicken names than I am.

Another week has passed and the girls are getting along famously. Neither seems to be on the edge of panic any longer and both have taken to following me around and unpiling my piles of grass clippings shortly after I make them.

Martha seems to be taking on the alpha hen role; one can see where the phrase 'mother hen' originates watching these two.

They've been living exclusively out of the chicken tractor for about two weeks now and have learned all the ins and outs of their new lifestyle. They've learned where food and water is and where to settle in for the night. The chicken tractor isn't complete yet but it lacks mostly external wire -- chickens get really confused when you put up new chicken wire where there was none before.

Martha spent a few lonely days following me around the yard and hiding whenever I would disappear into the house. There was a steady undercurrent of near panic in her actions. No longer did she patrol the fence row or turn the compost pile seeking insects, her existence had become two extremes -- hiding or seeking reassurance from me.

The afternoon she climbed the stairs to the deck and perched herself on my forearm cooing with calm I contacted Spencer -- my partner in the chicken buy -- and asked him if I could buy one of the chickens back from him. Considering Martha's lonely state he was delighted to sell a chicken back to me and the following evening he delivered a Speckled Sussex. With the addition of Abigail, Martha is once again a member of a flock.

For the next few days I began to fear that Martha's paranoia was contagious. The two of them spent a lot of time hiding under the bushes at the end of the garden and Martha still required a lot of reassurance from me (with Abigail trailing along certainly puzzled by all this attention paid to a human) but the last two days has seen the pair ranging through the garden once again doing their scratch, scratch, peck, peck dance.

Through the early morning mist and my sleep shrouded eyes the scene of devastation was apparent. Chickens strewn about the yard, unmoving feet and wings in disarray. An impossible state for any living chicken. Still in my skivvies I rushed into the yard blinking furiously to clear the sleep from my eyes.

The chickens had been living outdoors in the cage for almost two weeks under the roof of the incomplete chicken tractor. There hadn't been any problems. The chickens had greeted me with unbounded eagerness to be let out to begin the chicken busy work that chickens do. Rushing to the garden and climbing the unturned portions of the compost pile to begin their endless scratch, scratch, peck, peck dance.

The moisture in the air was close, almost fog. It would probably rain soon. I cursorily surveyed the carnage. One. Two. Three. Dead. I approached the cage hoping it still contained the remaining five. I searched my memory, did I leave the cage unlatched last night? The cage sat haphazardly askew, wedged between the two by fours that formed the tractor's floor. Empty. The heavy cardboard wired to two sides, providing wind protection, shredded, pieces scattered about. Where were the others?

As I began to survey the edges of the yard a black shape came charging towards me from the bushes about 75 feet away. One of the Wyandottes trailing frightened chicken chirps paused about ten feet away and began excitedly calling for the rest of the flock. Expectantly I shifted my vision to the tree line hoping to see them emerge running full tilt velociraptor style towards us. Heather called from the kitchen door, "I think I see something in the street."

Four. It was lying on the asphalt at the edge of the street wings splayed out head apparently chewed. I looked both ways down the street half expecting to see more bodies. I grasped the dead one by a cold foot and carried it to the back, the Wyandotte trailed me still calling for the flock. I began searching the periphery of the yard, calling every once and again. The Wyandotte seemed to have given up and was just following me now.

Five. I was weeding the garden and checking for sprouting seeds. It was lying just beyond the edge, I almost stepped on it. It was sometime after noon. The Wyandotte -- now named Martha after the first First Lady -- seemed to view me as the only remaining member of her flock. She panics when I am not in view and if she can't find me hides in the bushes that I saw her emerge from that morning. I wonder if it is possible for a chicken to die of loneliness. The two missing chickens have not appeared so I may have an opportunity to find out.

[with apologies to Ogden Edsel]

When it comes to chicken housing one has many design and style decisions to make and aside from some very basic needs -- todays chicken can thrive almost anywhere -- your chicken house can be as whimsical or as functional as you like.

I've looked at hundreds of chicken housing designs on the intarweb and in books but the single greatest source of ideas while designing my own chicken housing has been Chicken Coops: 45 Building Plans for Housing Your Flock. Aimed at the urban chicken owner the book reaches far beyond this arena to bring working designs from the down right temporary to housing for 700 broiler chickens on working farms. I find that this is a great approach because it reinforces the basic requirements of food, water, protection and shade and illustrates the different ways other owners have implemented them.

Plans in the book are by no means complete but each design includes several sketches with measurements, a bit of background on the builders' requirements and sketches of interesting design details. The final section of the book includes color pictures of most of the designs featured in the book. I found the measurements to be helpful to give an idea of scale, I think the single most voiced question by a new chicken owner is, "How big [or how small] does my chicken coop need to be?" A valid and important question. It was my first question and while this book doesn't explore the more technical details* it gives an excellent idea of the possibilities.

Be sure to spend plenty of time designing your structure, I found that my design changed through mock-up and implementation (and I've even found a couple of design changes I'd like to make if I only had a time machine).

*[For a concise discussion of technical space requirements you should check out Building Chicken Coops: Storey Country Wisdom Bulletin A-224]

The flock had a mighty culling Monday evening. Spencer came to pick up his share of chickens and opted to take 8 chicks rather than 4. So now we're down to half our original size. This is a good thing as I was looking at building two chicken tractors to house 11 chickens and now (depending on the figures) I may be able to get away with building only one. Still, I was a bit sad to see them go.

I guess now we can begin naming them (as soon as they start becoming more distinctive).

Baby chickens arrived via the USPS this morning. The delivery was rather early today, I wonder if the endless cheep cheeping coming from the 10 by 10 box was annoying. Perhaps that was why she arrived so early. But she had a smile on her face and in her voice when I answered the door. "You have chickens!", she laughed.

Indeed I did. I was surprised that 15 chicks could fit in the package. More surprising (and a little comical) was that all of the chicks could fit themselves in one corner of the small box when I reached in to grab the first one. I was prepared -- brooding cage, feed and water dispensers designed for chicks, necessary because sometimes chicks will fall asleep while drinking and drown, and a heat lamp that had been endlessly adjusted until the proper temperature was reached.

Grab a chick, dunk its beak carefully in the water -- this is their first drink ever and you need to play mother hen and show them what's what. Grab another, dunk the beak, grab, dunk, grab...the grabbing was easy at first but the last couple of chicks had become experts in evasion by the time it came for their grabbing. Sweep, grab, grab, dunk.

They took to the water it was, literally, the best water they had ever tasted. Within a few minutes they had located the chick feed and deciphered its use and a few moments later most had bedded down under the heat lamp and were asleep. Tiny, tiny chickens.

For starters there is a bit to learn and not all of it is in books. So you want to be an urban chicken farmer? Let's begin with baby-steps:

• The Law
  Know your rights. Most municipal codes are published on the web. Find out what the ordinances for your municipality have to say.
• The Neighbors
  Make sure you don't have assholes for neighbors -- if you do make sure you are well within the letter of the law.
• The Startup
  After you've made a conscious decision that you're going to become a chicken farmer/owner you'll need to plan to provide the following for your chickens:
• Safety: Opossums find chickens very tasty. So do skunks, raccoons and feral cats. You must provide secure shelter for your chickens at night. Keep in mind skunks are excellent tunnelers.
• Shelter: Chickens don't like the cold, or the rain, or the wind, or the sun. One would think they preferred cavorting in the dappled shade of subtropical forests just like their wild forest-chicken ancestors. There are hundreds of pictures and plans for coops and runs on the internet, for all the whimsical variety they have very similar design details. Study them. Build one.
• Health: Chickens can get all sorts of diseases but in small flocks the probability is much lower than in commercial operations. The biggest contributors to your chickens' good health are cleanliness and a varied, high quality diet.

Aside from general guidelines concerning cleanliness and odors and some very specific instructions about when to apply lime to your chicken yard the relevant portions of CODE OF ORDINANCES City of KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI Codified through Ordinance No. 090784, enacted October 15, 2009, Section 14-15 are as follows:

(a) Location of pens; enclosure required. It shall be unlawful for any person to keep or maintain any chicken coop, dove cote, rabbit hutch or other pen, cage or enclosure for the housing of fowl or small animals, except dogs and cats, closer than 100 feet to the nearest portion of any building occupied by or in any way used by human beings, other than the dwelling occupied by the owner or keeper of the animals or fowl, or closer than 25 feet to the property line of the lot on which such fowl or animals are kept for sale within a bona fide produce market, commission house or store for purposes of trade and while so kept are confined in small coops, boxes or cages, or where such animals or fowl are kept for purposes of research in a laboratory. Animals and fowl so kept or maintained shall be enclosed on all sides and shall not be allowed to run or fly at large, except for homing pigeons.

(b) Control of odors. Every coop, dove cote, rabbit hutch or other yard establishment shall be kept so that no offensive, disagreeable or noxious smell or odor shall arise therefrom to the injury, annoyance or inconvenience of any inhabitants of the neighborhood

(f) Number of animals or fowl; keeping of roosters. Except where fowl, rabbits or other small animals are kept for sale within a bona fide produce market, commission house or store for the purpose of trade and while so kept are confined in small coops, boxes or cages, or where such animals or fowl are kept for purposes of research in a laboratory, or in areas zoned for agricultural use, it shall be unlawful for any person to keep or maintain, within 100 feet of the nearest portion of any dwelling or other building occupied by or in any way used by human beings except for a dwelling occupied by the owner or keeper of such animals, more than 15 chickens or other domestic fowl four months or more of age or 50 chicks or other domestic fowl under four months of age, or more than ten rabbits or other small animals over the age of four months, or more than 25 rabbits or other small animals under the age of four months. No rooster which crows shall be kept within 300 feet of any residence or dwelling except that of the owner or keeper.

The distilled version might go something like this: You can have 15 chickens in a coop that is at least 25' away from your property line and at least 100' from your neighbors' houses and the smell mustn't annoy your neighbors.