Whether you live on acres of land, a suburban neighborhood or an urban lot, you may be able to raise chickens in your backyard.
Keeping a few hens in your backyard will give you fresh eggs that are significantly more nutritious than what you normally buy at the supermarket.
Key information to consider before raising backyard chickens:

• Before buying a chicken coop, building your own chicken coop, or committing financially to raising chickens in your backyard, make sure to check the city ordinances where you reside.
   Many cities and towns have laws about raising chickens that you should be aware of before making any kind of initial investment.
  
• When checking city ordinances in your city or town it is extremely important phrase the question appropriately.
   If you ask how many chickens you can raise in your backyard, the answer could be NONE.
   However if you rephrase the question and ask how many PET chickens you can keep, you will probably receive a more favorable response.
  
• Raising chickens in your backyard is easier than many realize.
  Hens in general are less noisy than the wild birds in your backyard or even the dog next door.
   Roosters on the other hand can be quite noisy and aggressive!  Considering that hens can lay eggs without a rooster, you would be better off not adding them to your backyard flock unless you plan on breeding our hens.
  
• Your neighbors will also be a consideration when raising chickens in your backyard so make sure you are on good terms with them.
   Do no allow your chickens to roam openly on their property, and keep your coops clean with few unpleasant odors.
  
• Once the decision is made to raise chickens in your backyard, you will want a chicken coop that meets your needs and also those of your flock.
  Two of the most common coops are the traditional unmovable hen house and the portable design.
   If you are raising a backyard chicken flock the portable hen house might be a better option.
   Also known as "chicken tractors" or "arks," portable housing makes it possible to keep your chickens on grass or your garden if you need it de-bugged and tilled.
   A portable coop can also be rotated to different areas of your yard which will allow the land to naturally recover from the foraging birds.
  

Raising chickens in your backyard just makes sense.
Pasture chickens that eat a natural diet of grass, weeds, insects and worms will produce higher quality eggs with an orange yolk.
  Yellow yolks indicate that the hen is not getting enough daylight, and is not on pasture or grass.
  Hens benefit a garden by eating pests and weeds before the planted seeds set.
Hens also enjoy eating all kinds of food scraps.
The digested food comes out as manure and contributes to a great compost pile.
  This compost will enrich your soil to grow vegetables for you to eat and provide more scraps to be fed right back to the chickens!