Reader comments
A hot topic: chickens in the city

Hey, at least they are much quieter than a barking dog!

This is a very poor idea. It is well known that chickes and residential areas don't mix! Chickens breed and spread diseases that do not belong in urban areas. If this idea had been properly investigated, it never would have been approved.

What diseases?

Roosters should be banned, but if hens are properly penned, I don't see the harm.

Clem must be a city raised person, who thinks that he will be able to go to the store and buy his food any time that he wants to.

Clem may have never been to a properly ran farm. By that I mean not a agribusiness mega farm that has far too many animals on too few acres of land.
Like 1,000 bovines on a 200 acre feed lot.
Or far too many pigs on 100 acres even.
100 pigs on 100 acres is 90 too many.

As the one writer wrote if you have only hens, then the only time they will really make noise is when a hen lays an egg or she is in some sort of duress.

2 or 3 laying hens on a average city lot is not too much of a strain on the local ecosystem.

60 years ago quite a few families that were raising chickens and some other animals on their lots.

My family lived in a house in the late 1950's that sat on a couple of acres of land and we had a milk cow. We had fresh milk.
My father-law- did the same thing.

Hey again! Nothing better for bug control or weed control than a chicken in a movable cage...

Most urban chicken farmers take excellent care of their birds as they would pets, and (as others pointed out) chickens are a lot less nuisance than dogs who bark and run around pooping in the neighbors' yards. They eat little, keep the area bug-free, create very little mess, are easy to care for, quiet, and BONUS! They lay eggs! They are also highly entertaining to watch.

It's funny to see that the city councils most *against* chickens are in the more rural cities - Springville, for example. I think they secretly fear that if they allow chickens, they won't be taken seriously. Clue-in, folks. Urban chicken farming is "hot" but it's more than a fad. It's the more forward-thinking cities that are allowing it and discovering it's a good thing after all.

I have to laugh at Clem's comment that begins, "Chickens breed and spread diseases..." It sounds like he thinks they're going to run wild in the neighborhood and take up with some sparrows!