Do I need to live in the country to keep chickens?

[Blueskythinker]

I have always wanted to keep a couple of chickens, although I know nothing about it. I have a medium sized garden. Can you keep chickens in your garden? Are they noisy? Would neighbours object?

As a complete beginner, (actually, I can't even call myself a beginner, because I haven't started) what should I be thinking about?

They are not that noisy Blue (barking dogs are worse) and if you had a bit of grass where you could have a moveable pen then it would be ok but then I am biased.
THIS is quite a good site to get info from

my bil kept two chooks at the end of the garden until the fox got them, he lived in Tamworth then..... I think the fox is the major issue when thinking of having some urban hens.

I love having hens (we have four, that we got last year and we get 4 eggs a day just now)

We have 4, live in the middle of Bristol. Don't get a cockerel, as they really are noisy. Hens tend only to kick up when they've just laid or if they're scared (like if a fox comes). You do need do be constantly vigilant about the fox, and we keep ours in a coop/run unless we're there in the garden with them. But they don't need THAT much room - you can fence them off a corner of the garden quite easily.

no you do not, in the old days everybody kept a hen or two no matter where they lived (well possibly tenament flats were a problem!). you just need an ark to keep 2 and the are about £80 on ebay

Could you keep them in a garage at night? We have an outhouse type thing at the back of our garage.

Do they make a lot of mess? (ie poo)

bluesky - if you could attach a run to the garage and build them a house inside or give them the whole building with perches & nestboxes, then yes. My main henhouse is a redundant brick-built outdoor loo. Having the run attached is important because you don't want to be carting them to and from a separate run in the garden and because they'll want to go in and out in their own time. For laying eggs and sleeping and so on. If you can keep rodents out of the building all the better - we have the odd mouse nest but not rats. (Thank heavens).

t/shells chicken house/run is ideal for a townie garden, it's on slabs so the fox can't dig in. She did have pictures on her profile...?

cornsilk - yes they do poo a lot. Line their house with newspaper with straw on the top and roll the whole thing up and compost/bin/burn as necessary. Outdoor can be hosed clean or swept.

We've got pics on my blog

Oh riven, whereabouts are you?

masses and masses of poo!!