Well, to my amazement, our city allows all sorts of bird life!.. Except that they need to be in cages at all times.  40 feet away from any building.  How we will ever do this, I do not know.  I really want chickens!!  I do have a nice big shed, and I could rig something up behind that, but right now it is the only spot I have for the composts ( and the broken snowblower that was given to us, has never worked, and never will - dh is determined to get it going).  I am not sure of the exact size of our yard, I will have to look it up, but it is smallish, but bigger than some!  Wow, how is that for accuracy??  You know what I really really want??  Ducks!!  Those little tiny white ones, I can't think of their names right now, but they are so cute!  But I will settle for chickens. 

Obviously they will need some sort of shelter.  We have a homemade rabbit hutch out there too, it is made out of my ds's bed ( don't ask, it is hideous, but it works!), so I am sure we can make some sort of chicken chateau out there.  I have visions of us bringing them in at night, it gets pretty darn cold up here in the winter ( except this year, we saw our first robin yesterday!!)  So what do I need to do for shelter and warmth for them?  Also, my brother has chickens and the stench is out of this world!  He is on the outside of town, so people don't notice it, but my neighbours are clean freaks, and I am a bit concerned about this.  Not to mention the avian flu police that will be called if the neighbourhood finds out!!  Obviously, we will not have a rooster, that would just get us lynched and kicked off the street!

So, any advice for this city slicker about chickens in the city?  Wouldn't it be cool to have an emu, wow, I would be the talk of the town! I could just say it was an extra large chicken and you know what?  In this place, they would believe me!!