What You Need to Know Before Getting Backyard Chickens

Backyard chickens will provide the freshest eggs you can get—and some unexpected joy with their quirky antics. Samir Behlic/Shutterstock

Urban and suburban residents have a newfound interest in backyard chicken keeping. Though this interest has seen a gradual rekindling over the past decade, it was accelerated by the pandemic, supply chain issues, and a growing general desire for more food security and self-reliance, and is now moving full steam ahead.

Raising backyard chickens is an easy first step to take toward food security. It’s easier in a lot of ways than growing a garden, especially if you obtain hens of laying age—the toughest part of raising chickens is caring for them for the first six weeks, before they’re old enough to go outside. Not only are chickens great companions, but they lay eggs nearly year-round. They’re cute and quirky and pretty easy to care for, but there are a few things to take note of before making the leap.

Let’s Talk Legality

Check with your city’s Code of Ordinances to figure out if chickens are allowed in your town. Each city has varying rules regarding the location of structures, the number of fowl you can keep, and butchering laws, and some cities even require classes to be taken and inspections to be conducted before providing permits to allow raising chickens. The city we live in, for instance, only allows us to have three hens and requires that we be present while the hens are free ranging, while a few towns over, the limit is six chickens, and they are allowed to free range without any supervision.