Can you keep chickens in an inner city area?

[areyouthereMNtismeMargaret]

I really want some chickens ,I have a big garden which is quiet and away from the road.
Will it be ok ?

....Also where would I buy some chickens from?

www.omlet.co.uk

There's cheaper alternatives to the above but the website does a good explanation of how easy chickens are to keep, even in urban areas.

Thankyou

ps - look out for a poster called tortoiseSHELL. She knows her arks and they are a good alternative for small scale keepers.

My ears are burning!

Ok - inner city, no problem at all. Have a look at my blog which has some pics of our coop - enlarged one here

The main things to check are whether there are any covenant restrictions on your house deeds - probably not, but worth checking (although we didn't!). If you're urban then you will probably need to have them in some sort of contained house/run, because of foxes - rural foxes largely come out between dusk and dawn, urban foxes come out ALL day and are much less scared of humans. We only let ours out if we're actually in the garden with them.

Options for runs - a wooden house/run like we've got (ours is home made but there are lots on the web - will post you some links in a minute) - we have ours on concrete slabs with horse bedding (aubiose/hemcore/easibed) for them to scratch in. We'd originally planned having them on grass, but a permanent site worked better for us. Or an eglu/cube. These are plastic and I think you either love them or hate them! Advantages are ease of cleaning, disadvantages are the price!

Some links for you;

List of poultry suppliers - have a look down the list, find one in your area, and then have a search on the Omlet Forum and also Practical Poultry just to see if there are any comments (good or bad) - some suppliers have a bad rep!

Arks; Woodenart
Greenhill Country Coops
Flytes of Fancy (very sweet!)
Forsham Cottage Arks - very popular
Some more here
here0

Oops - that last one didn't work - should have been here

A review of some arks