Practical Advice for Keeping Backyard Chickens in the City

[@rachelari1271]

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

[@EARTHTOMICH8LLE]

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

[@jenniferspeers2453]

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.

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

Using a shady area is great for chickens because you don’t want them to get too hot. The yogurt helps cool them down but also helps make sure they don’t get clogged up which can happen. Good luck and hope you will have chickens soon. They have so much personality and I love seeing and hearing them.

[@JS-jh4cy]

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

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

You’re not allowed to have roosters in the city so we don’t have any

[@SariClark-z9j]

No

[@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.

[@Rubies05]

Thank you for the information

[@legendarycinematics3091]

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.

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

Thank you for asking so kindly. We’re for ethical reasons and one of us is allergic to eggs anyway. Lots of our chickens are rescued from slaughter houses so they in general lay fever eggs.

[@yzhou123]

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

[@SK-nd7db]

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.

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

@@SK-nd7db give them some yogurt and that usually takes care of things.

[@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 😂

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

Thank you. Oh yeah they will pull them all out.

[@LandscapeManX]

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

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

Hen

[@LandscapeManX]

@@ZeroWasteFamily thanks. it sounds quite loud. Do they do that often?

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

I know who knew hens would be so noisy but yes anytime one of them lay an egg, they announce to the world:) so only during egg laying season @@LandscapeManX

[@sergiorodriguez856]

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

[@jm-ix3vj]

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

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

The bedding in the coop does not get wet. Only the run and we do not have bedding there

[@1hottomatoe]

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.

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

We use both actually but find that our girls absolutely loves a pile of straw to kick around

[@urbangardeningandchickenke1018]

Excellent video

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

Thank you

[@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.

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

We have a worm compost too because we need lots of compost for the garden

[@martysgarden]

@@ZeroWasteFamily awesome, stoked to hear that. You guys grow a lot of food.

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

@@martysgarden yes we do ha ha ha

[@previnmm]

💜

[@-whackd]

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

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

No the amount that we eat

[@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...

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

Yes make sure to check if chickens are allowed and how many in your area. I have to warn you that chickens lay eggs randomly and will always take a break for months when they change their feathers.

[@heidicavagnaro811]

Where did you get the solar door

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

This is the one we bought, it has worked for years! chickendoors.com/product/left-side-standard-pullet-shut-door/

[@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

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

Some of our chickens do not lay eggs because they are older but sometimes we get two and sometimes none because they ate them or broke them or just not feeling it 😁

[@HoeIngandSowIngGardening]

@@ZeroWasteFamily WOW I didn't know they would eat the eggs. I just learned something.

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

@@HoeIngandSowIngGardening sometimes and it’s natural for them I guess

[@sarahwong5592]

Mostly it is "natural for them" if they are not getting enough calcium.

[@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??

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

You could clip the feathers and see if that works. I have one chicken who still can fly really well even with shorter feathers:)

[@ehanayaanrocks]

@@ZeroWasteFamily idk, if it flies out, it'll fly 50ft down the apartment but in the same time,my hen is a scaredy cat and won't fly down 7 ft even if bribed with food,it doesn't want to jump any higher than 2ft ,but what do you think I should do? Should I let it loose on my rooftop?

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

@@ehanayaanrocks sure but keep an eye on her

[@ehanayaanrocks]

@@ZeroWasteFamily yeah,I will

[@1aliveandwell]

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

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

Wow! Our first 4 chickens we bought from our neighbor for $20 including the coop and all chickens after that were rescued so free.

[@annmarie1689]

Thankfully my town only allows chickens on large lots, smaller lots cannot have chickens. Too loud.

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

Chickens are not too loud and actually are silent from dusk to the sun comes out. Roosters on other hand are very loud. My neighbor always say that they rather have my chickens then the dogs that live in our neighborhood and bark at night. 😃

[@jor4288]

Do you end up with rodents when you have chickens so near the house? I am asking because I have heard that their food attracts rodents.

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

We live by an alley so we unfortunately had rodents before we had chickens.

[@kentuckychickensandhomestead]

I would personally eat the eggs it is a superfood and I would forget vegan, and enjoy some good hearty protein.

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

They are old and almost lay no eggs

[@kristin87425]

I wondered! They are more just pets then. Very sweet you’re giving them a good life in their senior years ❤️

[@franklinmichael671]

So you don’t eat the eggs because you think they’re not healthy?

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

No because we’re vegan

[@wrtpbd]

ive always bought baby chickens and they are sexed, So far I have not had any roosters

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

That’s the best way to do it because you do not want to end up with a rooster by mistake

[@winkfinkerstien1957]

😎👍🏻🐔🌱

[@ZE308AC]

too bad people have cats outside roaming in the city

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

Yes and luckily we have not had any problems with them so far.

[@felishiadarling]

You can be vegan and eat eggs. It’s is simply a protein source. It is not meat nor is it a chicken.

[@healthnut3165]

They dont eat eggs because they come from mistreated chickens. But in this case I would suggest them to eat them

[@dislikebutton7946]

Vegans having backyard chickens, seems a bit odd lol waste of eggs

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

I understand the confusion. Most of our chickens do not lay eggs and as we said in the video, our girls are very important to our urban homestead. They eat our compost, they remove bugs from our garden boxes and they provide fertilizer for our garden. They also provide hugs for my kids.

[@stringbender3]

All organic too those must be some good eggs. Hopefully they get sold or given away to someone who will eat them.

[@-whackd]

They would be good to give to children because those eggs are high in choline, which is very important for child brain development. And is one of the reasons why it is sometimes considered child abuse to feed a vegan diet to a baby--because the brain needs all that choline. Vegans only get it by buying supplements.

[@healthnut3165]

Technically its a bit odd that they cant have eggs that come from non suffering chickens of their own. That’s the problem with these ethical dogmas. They dont care about making sense

[@JessikaSainthilaire]

STOP I AM VEGAN

[@santiagodsl]

I find it a bit contradictory to profit by selling the eggs and being vegan.

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

In understand but for us it feels worse to throw them away because that will add to greenhouse gasses.

[@santiagodsl]

@@ZeroWasteFamily Yeah no, of course selling them is the intelligent thing to do. If you don't mind me asking, why don't you eat them? you are already producing them in a very ethical/sustainable way .

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

@@santiagodsl good question but we don’t eat eggs and mostly of our chickens are rescued so they don’t lay eggs and we only keep chickens for composting and cuddles.

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

@@santiagodsl thank you for being open minded and for asking 💚

[@santiagodsl]

@@ZeroWasteFamily Yeah no worries, thank you for replying. I'm just about to build a coop for four laying chickens, I'll be eating the eggs and keeping the hens as happy and healthy as possible.

[@glumGlumm]

Wierd that they eat alot tofu but not eat eggs.

[@anthonyjohnston1618]

when the guy said "we don't actually eat the eggs because we are vegan" I had to LOL

[@harrycock3705]

why were they all wearing masks?

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

Because it was in the beginning of the pandemic and we had a play date with neighbors

[@Hawkrvo]

Move to a fricken farm

[@RD-wn9iw]

18000?

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

Yes we save $18,000 a year living minimally and zero waste

[@RD-wn9iw]

@@ZeroWasteFamily how does the chicken save a family of five 18k though?

[@ZeroWasteFamily]

@@RD-wn9iw we did not say they alone saves us $18,000 but we as a family save $18,000 a year growing our own food, living zero waste and minimal. The chickens have a huge part of us growing food because the eat our compost and give us fertilizers and calcium power that we use for our zero waste vegetable garden.

[@RD-wn9iw]

@@ZeroWasteFamily Fair enough. Good way of living anyway. I would do it if I could..

[@Hawkrvo]

Move to a fricken farm