Home fresh eggs: How to raise chickens in your backyard

Safety tips for feathered friends
Show your kid how to safely hold a chick (ask the feed store clerk to demonstrate, if you don't know how either), and always supervise their initial interactions. Have kids sit on a carpeted or grass surface, so if they drop the chick, it will have a padded landing.

Adult chickens are generally fine around house cats and well-trained dogs, but supervision is always the safest route. Small chicks should never be left with other pets. Keep in mind that even if a chick doesn't die from a mishap, any sign of weakness – a broken leg, bloody scratch – can result in it being attacked and killed by its peers. This is why safety is so important.

Raccoons, skunks, foxes, coyotes, red-tailed hawks and stray dogs and cats are all potential predators of backyard chickens. You can minimize their danger by ensuring runs are securely fenced in, including on top, and by using heavy-gauge wire mesh, not "chicken wire", on runs. The sides of a run should flange outward a foot or more, to prevent predators from trying to dig under the sides.

Finally, the legal stuff
Sadly, keeping backyard chickens goes against some municipal bylaws. Toronto has banned them, as has Halifax, where one woman had her three chickens seized after a neighbour complained.

Backyard chickens are permitted in Vancouver and Victoria, and London and Niagara Falls, Ont, among a few other cities. They're not explicitly banned in Waterloo, Ont., but a citizen's group calling itself the Waterloo Hen Association is lobbying to have urban chickens legalized.

I couldn't find info online as to whether there's a bylaw restricting them in my city (and didn't want to draw attention to myself by phoning in an inquiry), so I keep them on the down-low, aided and abetted by neighbours who like the novelty of hens.

Here are my top tips for raising backyard hens under the radar:
• Don't get too many. Three is a good number.

• Pick a quiet, docile breed. Even mellow neighbours might become less so if your flighty chickens make periodic breaks for freedom into their backyard or are noisy.
 
• Keep your henhouse über-clean. Lock feed in rodent-proof bins or canisters. Vigilantly clean the house and run to prevent odour.

• Don't create an eyesore. Or neighbours might talk. To the city, that is.

• Finally, share the wealth. If your neighbours know about the hens, occasionally drop off a basket of a half-dozen fresh organic eggs . Goodwill is practically guaranteed!

Read more:
5 healthy herbs: It's easy to grow them
The true price of dogs, cats, rabbits, birds and other critters
10 tips for being a responsible pet owner

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