Practical Advice for Keeping Backyard Chickens in the City

We live just 10 min from downtown San Diego. We live on a standard city lot (7500 sq ft) and grow 80% of the food for our family of 5. Chickens are an important part of our urban homestead. Meet our chickens and learn about our setup and answers to questions we often get.

We’re a family of five living zero-waste, plant-based, & mindfully minimal so that both our kids and planet can enjoy a beautiful, thriving future. We grow most of the food we need to support our family. We live on a standard city lot, 7500 sq ft, just 10 min from downtown San Diego. We grow 80% of the food our family of 5 eats.

[rachelari]

Great video. You are not causing any harm to anybody if you eat eggs. They are good for you.

[EARTHTOMICHLLE]

I have 3 chickens in my backyard! They don’t make too much noise, and we get their healthy eggs! 😎

[jenniferspeers]

My city is doing a trial on backyard hens. I am not prepared to put in the cost yet, if they can just revoke the permission in a years time. But I am very excited for the prospect! Seeing your hens on the north side has given me some great insight into where my coup could go. One side of my house is virtually all shade all day too and is otherwise quite useless for any sort of production space.... thank yiu for sharing. Yogurt is a new trick to me too, very interesting. Clearly I am still in very early stages of my research and planning.

[thedrunkweddingphotographer]

THE MOST important thing to consider if you live in the city and are considering raising chickens is the amount of noice hens make an hour before and a few minutes of laying eggs. Something to keep in mind if you're a few feet away between neighbors.

I'm a first time chicken owner, a little less than a year in and my flocks screams at their top of their lungs. I've been spraying them with the water hose and it seems like it works for a day or two. Hopefully in a month they'll learn to not be so loud. I've seen this 'training' work for many on this platform who also raise backyard hens.

[JS-jhcy]

What about the roosters? 🐓 any wayto stop crowing, ? Do rubber bands around the neck work?

[sergiorodriguez]

Yes, cities normally have a limit of five, but I’m going beyond that the city is not going to go check how many you have my limit is 12 10 girls and two boys

[legendarycinematics]

Just curious, if you are vegan for ethical reasons why not eat the eggs from the chickens you raise since you know they have a good life and are just doing their natural thing. But, may be vegan for just diet reasons and then it doesn’t matter either way.

[elyserhyne]

Just a note - some chcikens are auto sexing. The male and female chicks look different for those breeds.

[yzhou]

I have 3 chickens at my balcony in a big city...so far so good... but it is difficult to let them out in the lawn, sometime

[LandscapeManX]

The sounds at 0:50 1:08 & 1:19 is that a hen or a rooster?

[SK-nddb]

We have 2 hens and lately I notice they have a messy behind. They have a lot of thick feathers and I heard when they have a bowel movement a lot of it drops on the feathers.
They eat good quality chicken feed( Purina Layer Feed with protein) They have some grit & probiotics.. which I mix in their feed. I wonder what could be the problem? Your hens
look so clean from the back.

[RainbowVegansRock]

I really enjoyed that, chickens are such little characters.😍 That solar powered door is genius! I've heard that chickens eat all of your vegetables if you're not careful 😂

[jm-ixvj]

What do you do in winter for your chicken run? Like when the bedding gets wet

[aliveandwell]

Pullets cost ~$35-40 in our area, so buying sexlinked chicks would be more cost effective.

[-whackd]

When you say you grow 80% of your food, is that by calories?

[hottomatoe]

Thanks for posting such a happy and informative video! We too live in San Diego and have chickens, 5 currently. I was wondering why you chose to use straw instead of sand? We use sand and do a deep litter method.

[martysgarden]

Miss my gals, but I use compost worms hundreds of thousands of them to get rid of a lot of waste and turn it into black gold castings. Are you worm farming there? My chooks used to eat them as well.

[arthinkers]

Eggs has gotten so expensive, I would like to raise the minimum number of chickens in our residential zoned backyard...I have to contact the City if they would allow it...Sir you got such a healthy looking chubby chickens...

[ehanayaanrocks]

I have a pet chick and am planning to shift it to my 15 by 25ft terrace but it was 4ft tall wall, so it can fly out if desired, so should I clip it's feathers and let it roam around the rooftop as his home??

[HoeIngandSowIngGardening]

I thought about having chickens. My property is very small too. Your chickens look happy in their space. I'm happy to see that. How may eggs do they lay per day? 👍😎🌴🌻🌸😀😎🌴👍 - LazyLizLife