People are planting heritage gardens on empty city lots, while chicken and rabbit coops are springing up in backyards all over the place. Introducing typical farm animals to the urban environment is an interesting concept, but even more so when you consider the potential introduction of farm animals to the wide variety of community associations that exist in the state of Illinois. How would that, or could that, possibly work? While it’s certainly possible for people and animals to cohabitate in close urban proximity, there may be some unavoidable issues.
WHAT COULD GO WRONG? In George Orwell’s allegorical novel Animal Farm, the pigs essentially stage a coup, oust the humans and take over the farm. The chickens in the story were smart enough to be some of the first animals to rebel against the pigs’ new world order. This time, it’s the hens that are taking over.
What’s a homeowner with a yen for animal farming to do? There would seem to be obvious limits to the size and type of animals that might be introduced into a Chicago high rise, but those same restrictions, or far more restrictions, may exist in a suburban or even country homeowners association. To get the most bang for the proverbial buck - and maybe to find a way around restrictive community association covenants - people are turning to chickens. Birds are just pets, right? Surely your sweet hens, Laverne and Shirley, won’t be a problem. Before you bring home those cute little chicks that will grow into hens, it’s time to do some thinking. Why do you want to keep chickens, and is it actually possible? Consider the options and do the research first.
If you’re an urbanite who thinks you can raise backyard chickens for meat, it’s probably best to forget about it. You won’t be taking the hatchet to the backyard to kill dinner. It seems there are lots of codes and laws about raising chickens for the meat, and there are a plethora of municipalities with laws on the books about animal cruelty that would apply to the unceremonious demise of your feathered friends. If you’d like to keep a chicken coop to contribute to the preservation of a breed or to sell the offspring, leave those altruistic endeavors or commercial enterprises to your country pals. To dispel one common myth, you will not need a rooster in your hen house. Hens lay eggs with or without a rooster; you only need a rooster if you want fertilized eggs to create more chickens. Raising chickens as pets? Chicken farming for eggs? Definitely possible in certain circumstances. There are obvious and edible benefits of pet hens, and those would be eggs!
If you aim to be a happy urban homeowner with farm fresh eggs in your refrigerator on a daily basis, you first need to find out if your city, town or municipality will allow hens on your private property. As it turns out, an internet search about the legality of keeping chickens at home reveals some surprises. That city of big shoulders, Chicago, appears to have nothing in its code that prohibits keeping chickens. Various online blogs indicate that Naperville, Downers Grove and Oak Park may allow hens
raised by homeowners, along with more restrictive options offered by Evanston and Brookfield. Do your best to locate the municipal code for your jurisdiction, and read it thoroughly. While Chicago may allow for chickens in backyards, there are also sections of the code that covers fines for animal noise. Dogs may bark, but chickens cluck! Be sure you know if your town allows for the birds, as many municipalities do not. You’ll have no chance with your community association if your town nixes the practice first.
If your local government allows for backyard chicken farming for eggs, the next documents to review are your community association covenants and restrictions. In reality, many association declarations and by-laws contain language that reads something like: No animals, fowl, reptiles, poultry or insects of any kind (“animals”) may be raised, bred, or kept on the property, except that dogs, cats, fish, birds and other usual household pets may be kept, provided that they are not kept, bred or maintained for commercial purposes. Is that clear? More like it’s clearly ambiguous. Chickens are commonly defined as fowl or poultry rather than “birds” but the dictionary definitions of both fowl and poultry may include the word “birds.” Before trying to make the argument that your hens are really permitted pets, you might want to get your own legal opinion on the matter. It would seem logical that your community association will ask counsel for that opinion. Let the lawyers make the assumptions on the definition of a chicken!
Once you’ve established that the hens are legal and allowed by your community association, you’ll need to consider some of the more practical aspects of chicken farming before you begin enjoying those “farm” fresh eggs. Realistically, chickens need a bit of room to roam. A chicken coop probably isn’t going to fit on your elevated balcony or be permissible on your limited common element patio. You might be able to get away with keeping caged chickens inside your little condo, but the health and well- being of the birds will suffer as will the egg quality and production. For practical purposes, you probably need at least some outside space that may best be provided in a suburban townhouse community, or better yet in a single
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