uBuilder Plans

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Q - I have two Sebright bantam MIX chicks. They live in their outdoor pen during the day and love it. They are full bro and sis, but the female is much older and larger than her brother. She sits on him at night and he follows her around. She is barely six weeks old. Her brother less than half that. Their pen is 4 feet nine inches wide and 6 feet long. How many (small bantams) could I keep in it?
A- Minimum space requirements for a bantam chicken are 2 to 3 square feet per bird. This is an area literally 2 feet long and 2 feet wide plus approximately 30 inches tall. This is a minimum. Birds are much happier and healthier with at least twice this amount of space.

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Q - Is it illegal to have a pet chicken? Are there any space restrictions? Is it O.K. if it's in my backyard? How many can I have?
A- I have pet chickens. In my area it is legal as long as the hen house is no closer that 75 feet from another persons home and you can have no more than 20 birds. I recommend not having any roosters as they create more noise and problems. There are a lot of us out here! We have discovered that chickens are wonderful friendly pets and my three hens provide all of the eggs my family can eat as well!
The space that each bird requires depends on the size of the bird. Obviously a Japanese bantam will require far less space than a standard size Cochin. Most text books recommend the minimum space required for an adult bantam to be 2 square feet per bird (or 5 birds per square meter) and space for an adult standard size bird 4 square feet per bird (or 3 birds per square meter) for open housing situations and close to 3 times this amount of space for confinement housing.
According to the United Egg Producers Certified Program which has developed the Egg Industry Establishes Guidelines for commercial egg production in the United States: “All hens should be able to stand comfortably upright it their cage. The slope of the cage floor should not exceed 8 degrees. Space allowances should be in the range of 67 to 86 square inches of useable space per bird to optimize hen welfare.”

These guidelines were written to accommodate the standard production-type birds in the United States like the White Leghorn and Rhode Island Red.
I personally would recommend providing far more than these minimum space requirements for each bird. Plenty of space to move around in is as important to the health of living things as is proper nutrition and fresh water.

Please do your homework BEFORE getting chickens!

Check out those city CODES and follow them!
Get an attractive chicken coop like "the City Biddy Hen House” and keep it clean and tidy!
Give the neighbors some fresh eggs and educate them!

Then spread the WORD! Chickens are good for the environment and the soul!

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Q - I plan on trying to breed my own chickens, but I don't wish to alienate my neighbor completely by having non stop crowing.
He wasn't too pleased when he found out I was getting chickens. I was nice and placed my hen house well away from his house. In the area here we bought out home a couple of years ago, it was almost all farm land. Now the land has been sold and houses are springing up all around me. They built over a quarter million dollar house almost in my back yard. I have a 1932 farm house ( which still needs painted). My land backs up to my new neighbors driveway and garage. City folks are moving out here and bringing city ways with them. I have nothing against city folks but please don't move into farm country and expect us to quit raising animals. We chose the country so we could have a garden and raise our own food if we have enough land. I only have an acre but I make it work. I raise what I can. It just seems like the farmers are selling out which is such a shame. We need the American farmer. They are the backbone of this country.
A- A few of those farm fresh eggs really goes a long way to helping your neighbors love your chickens. I will keep no roosters as I am trying to be as city friendly as possible. I regularly give away eggs. I also take the time to show off my nicest hen to the neighbor children and occasionally have a Bar B Q chicken dinner with a neighbor or two and have given them frozen birds for Christmas gifts.

Clean, quiet, friendly, and generous chickens make for farm friendly neighbors. This also works with other livestock.

A neighbor of our kept American Saddlebred horses in an extremely built up neighborhood. His barn looked like another house sitting back of his home on the lot and matching his home down to the shutters on the screened windows. His training arena had a beautiful white fence and flower pots of geraniums hanging on the fence posts. The arena was always paved with fresh bark chips and the lawn was always meticulously clipped. Neighbors loved to watch him work his high steppers and would often joke that he did not allow them to poop. If you went inside of the stable it was also perfectly clean. Window bars inside of the stalls allowed air in and kept the horses from damaging the storm windows and screens that kept the flies OUT. The horses stood under fans in summer and were kept warmly blanketed in winter. They DID poop, but when the stalls were cleaned, morning and evening, the waste went into a small trailer discreetly hedged and covered with a tarp. This gentleman had two to three horses at all times and lived 8 city blocks from the city square in a city of over 100,000 people! He had happy neighbors on all sides and the city health and codes departments never received any complaints.

I am certain that my neighbor put a lot of work and planning into his enterprise. Perhaps he sets a good example for all of us "country folks" that are either living in or being surrounded by the city.