AIBU to think I could keep chickens in a normal house in an suburban area?

[KitKat1985]

I've always wanted to have some pet chickens. I've been looking today at these 'Eglu' houses (link below) and it's making me think maybe I could just do it and keep 2-3 chickens in our garden. I've had friends that have had them and found them lovely pets, and our DDs would love them. But is it a completely nuts idea? Our house is detached, but our neighbours are in reasonably close proximity. We have a small-medium sized garden. Has anyone done this? Do they cause problems (noise, smell etc) that are likely to make me a very unpopular neighbour?

www.omlet.co.uk/shop/chicken_keeping/

My ndn had chickens for a couple of years. I never heard them or saw any rats although I have cats.
Ide say go for it. I echo pp though. No cockerel. Nobody wants to be woken up by that.

Chickens make the loveliest pets. I would go for 3 bantams in a small garden, they are much less destructive. They would be fine in an Eglu run with regular free ranging. Perkins are very friendly and look beautiful. We have never had a problem with rats linked to our chickens.

OP - YANBU - and Eglus are awesome. Had chickens happily (and rat free) in suburban London. Feel free to PM me

I had 2 chickens in my garden in North London. I loved them, they were very entertaining, the eggs were great, but as time went by one became more dominant and she did get a bit noisy and did a bit of crowing early in the morning.
They also rather destroyed my garden.
One night I forgot to lock the door to the Eglu (I had a run attached to it) and a Fox came in and killed them both (didn’t eat them just killed them) I was devestated. Just too many urban foxes for me to risk doing it again.

Our neighbors have them and they don’t bother us.
Their garden does stink on hot days so they bbq in the front
I don’t see the appeal, a vegetable patch would be less hassle.

We had chooks in a suburban yard and ended up getting rid of them as they were so noisy. One thought it was a rooster and crowed at dawn. Some breeds are quieter than others. I got a solar powered door on a timer that let them out at dawn and locked them in at night which helped a little but they were still noisy. The eggs were great though!

The neighbour behind my house got several chickens and a cockeral two days after I gave birth to my youngest baby back in Spring. I've seen rats, the coop stinks especially on a hot day and the chickens themselves cluck so loudly my children get woken up at the crack of dawn, nevermind the cockeral crowing every 7 seconds from sun up until dusk. Eggs are lovely for them I'm sure, but I'm about ready to go fry them all from the lack of sleep. We had to keep our windows closed all summer and couldn't play out in the garden because of the noise, the smell and the increase in flies. It's been dreadful. Our enjoyment of our dream home has severely been diminished and we're planning to move out and lose a great deal on it. We only moved in last year.

I'd retaliate with something more annoying like a peacock if I had the energy but 6 months of exhausted kids and two very groggy parents and we don't have the strength to start a neighbourhood fight. We might rent this house out as an air bnb in the meantime, and pop a piano and hot tub in the garden for good measure

I've had chickens. They weren't noisy. They clucked a bit but not noisy. Barking dogs are far louder!!

But they do smell. You would need to clean them out regularly.

I also wouldn't leave their food down overnight. To discourage the rats.

Other than that, go for it. I loved having hens. The eggs were second to none.

@Awaywiththefairies27 that sounds so wearying.

Have you had a chat with your neighbours about your position?

We have chickens. Yes there are rats despite us putting traps down and using feeders which the rats should not be able to access. We also have decking and a pond so I guess it's a bit of a perfect storm for rats.

They are noisy when they've just laid an egg. Otherwise quiet. Cockerels are obviously noisy. We hatch our own and when the cockerels start to reach crowing age it is a sign that coq au vin will be on the menu soon!

My neighbour has free range bantams, who escape. Feed needs to be kept in a licked bin, you can get mice! She has a stable door.

I have 200' of garden though, don't find them noisy

@Cobblersandhogwash

They dont care unfortunately. All our other neighbours are retired and hearing impaired to the level of using hearing aids and spend their summers abroad, so despite it being a suburban area we're the only ones who are bothered by it. Their coop is closer to our house than it is theirs. If we went through the council to complain we'd be very easy to single out as the complainers and don't want to bring trouble on ourselves. I can see why people want chickens but I personally think it's selfish unless you're living rurally.
Two of my children have autism and get sensory overload from the noise, they can hear it in their bedrooms with all windows closed.

Mine weren’t noisy except if they got spooked. Overall they were no noisier than a cat or dog.

I second Pekins for a small garden. Silkies are also lovely. Don’t get hybrids - they are prone to peritonitis and can need expensive regular implants to prevent it.

P.S. they should not have red mites or any other parasites. You need to clean out the coop weekly and use anti- mite treatments on the coop regularly. You will also need to worm the chickens every few months with flubenvet and give them anti mite treatments with ivomectin. Most vets don’t know much about chickens so you will need to locate an avian specialist. The Omlet forum is very helpful.

Foxes! Our neighbours had chickens for about three months until one morning they came down to absolute carnage in the garden.

My neighbours have 3 hens, and a beautiful garden!

I hear them sometimes when I’m in my garden, and I like hearing them - especially their excitement when they’ve laid an egg.

We've had chickens for years and love them. We had pekin bantams first time round including a cockerel. They are cute but highly strung and I wouldn't recommend them.
We now have three lovely calm hens of various breeds. They are lovely and so tame that even my 2 year old can pick them up easily and give them a cuddle.

We have an eglu and leave them locked in until a sensible time (7am during the week and 8:30am at weekends) and you can't hear them at all. They do cluck when they see danger but its quieter than a nearby dog.

We don't seem to have a problem with rats as we've never seen any in the garden. We have a few mice but they were here before the chickens. We do have a fairly large fox population and a huge badger so that might explain it.

The only downside is they have eaten all the frogs in the garden which is a shame but they eat the slugs too which is great.

They love woodchip and earth so will dig around in these and tend to leave our grass alone. Its bare earth inside their run (its really big and we don't move it) but they free-range at least every other day and our garden looks fine.

If you grow veg. put netting around your beds when its young as they will eat it.