Many large cities are changing their laws to allow a few chickens per household. In many cases, citizens lobbied extensively to get the anti-chicken laws changed. Even when the laws have changed, most municipalities still allow just three chickens per yard, and many laws require the signature and acceptance of most of the neighbors before you can get a permit.
Almost all of the concern about chickens in the city revolves around two common problems: The noise made by roosters, and the smell of an old-fashioned chicken coop.
The only thing you can do about the noise is to refrain from getting a rooster for your small city flock. In fact, very few cities allow keeping roosters. (I prefer the sound of a crowing rooster to the din of barking dogs, but that's just me).
Fortunately, it's also easy to keep your coop from smelling bad. What it comes down to is ammonia control, and the amount of ammonia (and smell) can be regulated by the carbon/nitrogen ratio of the bedding inside their chicken house.
When chicken poop builds up, it quickly begins to smell because ammonia is given off. This can cause neighbors to be upset, and fast. It's also unhealthy for your flock, and it makes it much less fun to gather your eggs. Nobody likes the smell of ammonia.
In the countryside, people traditionally allowed chicken manure to build up inside the coops, which were usually well ventilated. The birds spent most of their daylight hours rummaging around the homestead looking for bugs and seeds, and spreading their manure far and wide. Inside the coop, a board was placed just under the roost, and this board caught the droppings during the night when the birds were confined to the coop. Then, every month or three, an unlucky child would be given the job of cleaning the poop off the board. It was not a pleasant job. The memory of this tradition may be why so many people firmly believe that chicken coops stink.
A more reasonable technique for city chicken flocks is to clean out the bedding at least once a week. If the owner of the flock has a garden, the bedding, usually straw or pine shavings, can be added to the compost pile. If not, it can be bagged and left out to be picked up with the other yard waste. This will keep the neighbors happy, but it's a lot of work. It also wastes one of the most valuable products that a flock of chickens produces - the high-nitrogen manure.
Lately, a third option has been catching on. Called deep bedding or "manure pack," this system relies on the chickens to dig their own manure into a deep layer of bedding in the coop. More bedding is added regularly, building up the depth of the material over time. The carbon in the bedding stops the ammonia from escaping, which also prevents the off-gassing of that valuable nitrogen. Microbes begin to build up in the bedding, and some of the bacteria have now been proven to help keep the chickens healthy.
About once a year, the bedding is removed to a compost pile, where it continues to decompose. If the manure pack is managed properly, there should never be an odor in the chicken coop. To work correctly, the chickens must have enough room - most people who have used this system say at least four square feet of floor space per bird is required inside the coop. If the birds don't automatically scratch the bedding over their droppings, you can encourage them to be more active by throwing in some chicken scratch or other treats. At the first whiff of ammonia, more bedding must be added. Some people keep adding more bedding until it reaches a foot or more high.
Happier neighbors, less work, and no odor. For me, deep bedding in the coop just makes sense.
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