Everyone Wants to Raise Chickens, but Egg-Layers Can Be Bad Neighbors

Wall Street Journal

03-04-2025

Carol Lewis has no regrets about how she voted on the chicken issue.
As a longtime member of the St. Cloud, Minn., city council, she'd heard all the arguments. At a December meeting, locals argued backyard chickens would offer a cheaper source of eggs. One resident said chickens would simply be 'awesome.'
Lewis, who left the council this year, was unmoved. 'We can't even seem to get people to mow their lawns these days. I don't know how we're going to keep chicken coops clean,' she told the crowd before voting 'nay' on the measure, which would have allowed backyard chickens at some homes.
Her grandmother, who raised chickens, always told her they were 'dirty birds,' she said in an interview. Lewis had other concerns, including bird flu. 'I hate to be a Debbie Downer,' the 68-year old said. 'But until we get that under control, it's just not even worth talking about.'
The measure failed, 5-1. 'We put the kibosh on it,' she said.
A decade ago, backyard chickens were more a niche for part-time farmers and urban hipsters. But the Covid-19 pandemic—and more recently, a spike in egg prices—has sent Americans flocking for their own poultry.
There were 11 million households with backyard chickens in 2024, up from 5.8 million in 2018, according to the American Pet Products Association. Even U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins recently jumped in, saying she wants to help Americans save money by making it easier to raise their own egg-layers.
Aspiring chicken-fanciers face plenty of hurdles. Local regulations often throw up red tape, or neighbors squawk. The birds can have steep startup costs and require diligent care. And good luck finding a pet sitter.
In Dallas, personal trainer Betina Gozo Shimonek said raising chickens on her half-acre of land is addicting. She started with four chickens last year to feed her family of five and will soon have over three dozen birds. She said her rooster crows at 6 a.m. but the neighbors don't mind, perhaps because she gives them eggs.
On a recent February day, her local farm store was scheduled to receive its first shipment of chicks this year between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Shimonek called at 12 p.m., but by then, they'd sold out.
'They were like, 'It's like Black Friday in here whenever the chicks come,'' she said.
On review site Yelp, searches for 'live chickens for sale' and 'chicken coops' were up 559% and 700% in the year between February 2024 and 2025. Kelly Null, a customer service representative at Cackle Hatchery said people start lining up at 6 a.m. outside their Lebanon, Mo., storefront to buy chicks, three hours before opening.
'Yesterday a woman had a lawn chair and a throw,' she said. 'Everyone wants baby chicks.'
But when it comes to saving money, chickens aren't all they're cracked up to be. Setting up a coop and chicken run, then raising chicks until they're old enough to start laying is expensive. 'Your first egg costs you about $1,500,' said Ryan Korbar, who runs a farm and teaches poultry-maintenance classes in Rostraver, Pa.
Nervous new chicken parents could shell out up to $2,495 for a 'Smart Coop,' a poultry condo equipped with automatic doors and cameras that alert owners via an app when predators like raccoons are nearby. They can activate alarms to scare predators.
In Suffield, Conn., Kathy Shea Mormino—who successfully lobbied her town to change its rules to permit backyard chickens over a decade ago—said she's glad to see the hobby taking flight, but advises caution. Unlike pet owners with cats or dogs, finding veterinarians versed in chicken care is hard, she said. Many new poultry enthusiasts also tend to underestimate how much care their birds will require.
'Chickens are not a vending machine that you park in your backyard,' said Mormino, who has written guides to raising chickens.
The lure of a more pastoral life, including a brood of hens, encouraged Jillian Willsey to move with her husband and three daughters to central Michigan from a Phoenix suburb three years ago. There were no chickens allowed at her former home, but the family added six birds to their 2-acre Midwest plot.
In February, though, the local government ordered her to remove them, saying they weren't permitted on plots smaller than 5 acres, something she hadn't known. She sent the birds to stay with friends and is petitioning for a rule change.
'I honestly did not think it would take such an emotional toll on me,' said Willsey, who said she values knowing where her food comes from.
More states have adopted regulations to make it easier to raise backyard chickens, including Arizona and Missouri. Others are considering the matter. 'Feeding yourself is a basic human right,' said Jim DeSana, a Republican state representative in Michigan who has a farm and recently introduced legislation to allow more people to raise backyard chickens.
'There are probably 50-60 ways to eat eggs—in a dish, quiche, scrambled, over easy,' said DeSana, a self-described 'scrambled guy.'
Debate over such regulations can get heated: in Tigard, Ore., a recent effort to update urban livestock regulations prompted an outpouring of comments on backyard birds. Many residents said they were delighted by the presence of such flocks, while others said they created rat problems and cited public health concerns.
One resident alleged chicken owners were bribing their neighbors with eggs to curry favor. Another circulated photos of dead rats on their property they said had been attracted by chicken feed.
Mayor Heidi Lueb said that the city's regulations, which don't limit the number of chickens locals can raise, also allow people to bring complaints over code violations that would cause noise, odor or pest issues. She said the town tries to strike a balance between unnecessarily restricting residents' freedoms and ensuring that they don't have 'full-on farms.'
'And no roosters,' she said. 'That's self-explanatory.'
Write to Te-Ping Chen at [e-mail] and Roshan Fernandez at [e-mail]