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[quote=Anonymous]We're relocating to the DC area from a dense, desirable neighborhood in a mid-sized Midwestern city.  Here, chickens are permitted with requirements for secure housing and hygiene that are similar to those for dogs.

My daughter discovered chickens at a demonstration garden and asked for a coop of our own, and after a few years we relented.  We told her it couldn't bother the neighbors, and she set out to do a Chicken Feasibility Study (really, floor plans and graphs and everything).

We'd heard that there were four coops on our block, and a couple dozen in the neighborhood.  The problem was that we couldn't find them.  A small flock of hens, properly cared for in an adequately sized coop, doesn't smell - and I mean no smell on a humid 90 degree day standing next to the coop.  They also don't make much noise, if any.   We had to knock on doors and ask.  Turns out I'd been attending cocktail parties in one neighbor's backyard, three feet from another neighbor's coop, with only a 6' fence in between.  No clue.  Now, our  own neighbor holds dinner parties at a table ten feet from our coop.

We built the coop and run to lock onto a raised garden bed.  There is zero accumulation of poop in the coop and no smell at all because we use a deep litter of coffee chaff and wood shavings over the soil.  Poop is scratched into the litter and eaten by earthworms.  I've never had to shovel it out, just add more litter when it's all scratched in.  The hens free range part of the day, and if there's a piece of poop big enough to notice - not often - I flick it into the run with a trowel as I garden.  A little food-grade diatomaceous earth keeps flies and mites away.

There are no pests because I feed slightly less than the full ration every morning and the bag is stored indoors.  The hens forage for the rest of their calories and eat all of our compost, which is a great thing because our yard is really too small for an active compost pile - 17' x 20' aside from the garage and driveway.

It's a great place to relax with a cup of coffee, and my friends prefer to sit out with the chickens when we chat. They're beautiful, healthy, glossy birds and amusing to watch -  dinosaurs with feathers, with interesting behaviors and distinct personalities.  They're also sometimes apparently affectionate, hopping into my lap for a snuggle.  I can't explain it, but their presence gives me a deep sense of contentment when I look out of the kitchen window, an all's-right-with-the-world feeling.

They are *not* dumb enough to drown in the rain - they read the weather well and find cover.   They can be hard on the grass if the free range area isn't shifted every week or two, but the grass comes back lusher than ever, and it's a fair trade for the ant and termite colonies they detected and destroyed in their first day.

The work required to care for them takes 1 1/2 minutes a day plus 3-5 minutes every few weeks.  And the eggs - I can't even buy eggs like these at the farmers' market.

We enjoy them.  They improve our lives a little.  They have far less impact on our neighbors than our clean, well-behaved dog does.   There's no reasonable justification at all for a total ban.

The proposed DC ordinance is alarming because it permits neighbors to object for any or no reason, including the ignorant BS found throughout this thread.  I've never considered living in the burbs before, but if we can find one we like with a common-sense chicken ordinance, that's where we'll buy.  [/quote]

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