8 awesome urban chicken coops
sillydog/Flickr

You need detailed plans and instructions to build functional and good looking chicken coop. Then you also need to know how to raise chicken in proper conditions. You can check this website to learn everything you need to build your own chicken coop.
http://www.makeusknow.com/categories/home&garden/diy-chicken-coop.html

Great ideas from some superbly creative folks - still like our funky green Eglu best from www.omlet.com, pricy but safe and easy to maintain.

I've considered getting urban chickens before, I just wonder what kind of time investment they involve?

Just after my cat of 18 years died, my chicken started pecking on my front door evey morning. Iv'e been feeding it the cat food that I still have from Sparky my cat. Finally I have a good friend once again......We are in love,. Chickens make great pets!.

If i ever get a decent size yard, I'm getting me some chickens.
Hell, i and others put up with all kind of urban sounds & other nuisances of blaring car sirens, revving up vehicles, lounging around crack heads, prostitutes and flying around trash of discarded McDonald's wraps, soda/beer cans and unpicked dog poop. I'll take the cackle of a hen, crow or poop of a rooster any day.
Fortunately I keep my feathers numbered for such an emergency! - Foghorn Leghorn

Just after my cat of 18 years died, my chicken started pecking on my front door evey morning. Iv'e been feeding it the cat food that I still have from Sparky my cat. Finally I have a good friend once again......We are in love,. Chickens make great pets!.


You had a bad neighbor. *That* was the problem. I've had neighbors who let their dogs run wild, poop in my yard and another neighbor who's cat loved my children's sandbox as a litter box as well as my garden. So...... I know! Lets ban cats and dogs. Yeah, that's it.


We have had chickens since 2002. We like our chicks. Feed has become expensive. They love kitchen scraps. When they are ranging they not only eat weeds and bugs but also a lot of stuff you don't want them to eat. They don't discriminate. Great fertilizer. Best eggs for sure. We like Barred Rocks,

We built a small coop out back and bought 7 chickens. They have completely cleared our yard of the 'visible' bugs/spiders and ate almost all of our weeds. Cleaned along all property lines & areas we had to weed out last year. Now we're ready to plant our garden. Eggs everyday. Best organic option we've tried so far. Our coop has a sand/dirt mix and their droppings are easily broken down. We don't have a smell issues with our flock. Hours of entertainment watching them too.

Chickens r the funniest and sweetest and most calming and meditative to watch. They r so close to nature and to the universal force, whatever u call it. We could all learn from how in tune they r with their surroundings, unlike some of the judgmental people commenting here.

We built a small coop out back and bought 7 chickens. They have completely cleared our yard of the 'visible' bugs/spiders and ate almost all of our weeds. Cleaned along all property lines & areas we had to weed out last year. Now we're ready to plant our garden. Eggs everyday. Best organic option we've tried so far. Our coop has a sand/dirt mix and their droppings are easily broken down. We don't have a smell issues with our flock. Hours of entertainment watching them too.

I will take the sound of chickens before the racket of lawnmowers, leafblowers, snowblowers,motorcycles,tractors,& radios.

I would have to agree! Take a chicken over a dirt bike, snowmobile, blaring radio, loud parties and other loud, annoying noises!!!!!!! Preach it baby!!!

My mom lives near someone with chicken coops, and the stench is god-awful... not to mention the noise.
If you live in an urban area and you don't want your neighbors to flatten you tires while you sleep, get your eggs at the grocery store like the rest of us!

are you nuts, if kept up and cleaned once in a while they don't smell at all. Ive smelt neighbors cats that Crap in my yard and are some of the most vile smelling creatures on the planet. but everyone has cats

@AllSensesOperational ... either you are smelling your own stinky odor or you take a bath once a month only ... you said " the ones groomed and shampooed - they still stink, " ... show me how they do it and what shampoo they use ?...I have a small dog that I shampoo (my regular shampoo) every once or twice a week and she smells great and even sleeps beside my 2 kids every night.

Based on your comments, your olfactory cells do not appear to be operating within the normal tollerance levels. Not that cats don't stink, I haven't encounted an animal that doesn't. Including the ones groomed and shampooded - they still stink, only their owners are either immune to or feign ignorrance of, the stench!

Then they're not taking proper care of the coop, because mine has almost ZERO odor! And I'm very sensitive to odors!


Depending on the breed of chicken they CAN lay year round, everyday. My Dominicks are that type. Everyday, year round we have eggs.



The urban coop should be coordinated with the urban garden, to provide automatic chicken-produced fertilizer on one section of the garden for a growing period, after which the coop is moved to cover the other half of the garden while the first half is planted for a new growth cycle. "Rinse and repeat" through available growing seasons.

Chicken manure is a high nitrogen fertilizer. You need to let it compost or age for a while before you add it to your already planted garden or before you start a new garden cycle with a layer of new manure on/in it. Failure to do so will result in burns to your plants or poor germination of your seeds.


I feel the same here , my mother raised chickens when I was a kid and the sound of roosters crow early morning didn't bother me at all .Some people think they own the place and the sound of chickens would ruin their whole life.If I have a neighbor who raise chickens I wouldn't mind at all , in fact I would support her/him , and probably buy the eggs or the meat. This is just my opinion so those "chicken haters", you chill out! ..Cocadoodle dooo!

I wonder if any of these folks advocating urban chicken coops
have ever cleaned one out that first warm day in spring. Bring
along a gas mask and a big shovel.

Smell isn't bad at all, especially if you use a deep litter method and good ventilation.

I love to hear a rooster crow and listen to the contented clucking of hens. These are sounds of my childhood.

Living next to the local chicken coop it a wonderful thing when they start crowing at 4:30 am every morning and your quite weekend mornings you get to awake to an hour or more of crowing then you get to listen to it all over again at about 4-5 pm in the afternoon, ya want crowing move to a farm and enjoy!!!!












Email

Join the conversation