Pffft no one keeps their chickens outdoors anymore:
I wouldn’t think you were poor. But I would envy you. Living in town has it’s disadvantages like not being able to have chickens and a goat.
I would be concerned about night predators, though.
Here’s an article about building a movable minicoop. You might want to take a look. http://www.motherearthnews.com/DIY/2003-02-01/Building-Mothers-Mini-Coop.aspx
Live chickens in your yard isn’t poor. However dead chickens up on bricks, partially dismantled for parts…
Actually, my mum lives in a small village where the local police station had chooks moseying about the front yard.
One more thing - if your chickens will be free range do not invest a lot of money in landscaping flowers. Ours ate the entire 40’ x 2’ bed of impatiens down to the ground. They also found begonias tasty. I’d also stay away from roosters as they can get downright mean (we had one who hated our daughter and would do his best to spur her every time she walked out of the door.)
On topic - I never gave much thought to whether having chickens in the yard made us look poor or not. We weren’t, the house and yard were neat, tidy and in good repair, and I just wanted chickens for the eggs. I’d like to say that they served double duty and we ate the meat too but we didn’t. I was too squeamish to pluck all the feathers… When they died of old age Mr. AdoptaMom threw them in the pond and the turtles would eat them.
I’ve got some new Mexican neighbors. They live two miles away up on the paved road and have chickens in the yard.
I ran over one the other day on the way to town. That was interesting…lookin’ through the rear-view mirror there was this big cloud of chicken feathers hangin’ in the air.
I didn’t really want to hit their chicken, but the effect was cool. My options were limited: They had tied their horse out on a long rope so he could graze grass on the side of the road and he’d wandered out on the pavement. It was either hit the horse or hit the chicken and I figgered the chicken was my best choice.
Yah, hey - I’ve had to slam on the brakes in my neighborhood to avoid chickens crossing the road. Worse than stray dogs in some ways.
The really fun morning was when one of the local hawks was chasing one of the local chickens across 45th street and I almost hit them both. One of those very weird situations where all motion comes to a halt, then all the critters are looking around wild-eyed with WTF? expressions on their faces.
It is possible that the impression dates back to The Great Depression era. I’m only relaying what I was told from my dad who grew up during the depression.
My dad grew up poor and they had chickens and ate them regularly. So much so in fact that when he grew up he refused to eat chicken. Anyway, according to him, part of being poor was having to grow your own food and chickens were cheap to raise.
If you would like some cool looking but mostly useless chickens let me know. I have several different types of banties and would be more than happy to give you some. 
Barrels
Not necessary: just spraypaint a designer logo onto each one. I think the intertwinced Cs of Chanel would work nicely.
When I was a kid, we lived on a farm. My grandfather believed strongly that children should raise animals and so I had chickens (including one who was my pet), ducks and pheasants (along with an assortment of mammals, some a bit unexpected.)
Plucking the feathers was the easy part. Do you know what was hard?
Taking the live chicken, binding its feet together and hanging her up from a rope or twine or string. Then you run a knife up through the roof of her mouth and pierce her brain to kill her and let all the blood drain out. Then you put her in really hot water to loosen up the feathers.
That’s where you come in…
Home Ec. classes were so much fun in the 1950s!
I think that chicken would meet an unfortunate end if I lived there. I had it all worked out how to get away with poisoning the dog across the street at my other apartment.
How do you live with it? How do they live with it? How do they live with the idea that their neighbors probably hate them?
This is preferable to just chopping the head off?
I’d really rather chop the head off.
Please please pleasepleaseplease tell me you two shared a wonderful chicken dinner two weeks later. 'Cause that ending would make this the best chicken vet story ever. 
It all depends on the yard, really. If they are roosting in old washers and dryers, discarded TVs, then yes, chickens might very well equate to poor. Or more likely, trash.
You got 2 acres? They cruise around and eat insects and lay eggs? Chickens = fresh eggs.
And every day is like Easter! (if you have wiley chickens!)
You need a raised chicken shack that is predator proof.
Personally I would keep them penned up and let them out when you are around to supervize them - that is what we used to do.
You’ll get eggs anyway - better build a laying enclosure in the shack that you can get into without going into their enclosure - also watch out for them laying in strange places. Better make it so you can lock them into the shack at night without having to go into their enclosure.
Cockerels are noisy, vicious swine, we had one once - it was a no brainer eating him.
YAY! Another Mother Earth News Reader! damned dirty hippie!
More Chicken Linkage ( courtesy of Mother Earth News Current Issue for April/May 2007)
The Modern Homestead. Advice from a homesteader on getting started. Mad City Chickens A website by and for the backyard chicken keepers of Madison, WI.
Robert Plamondon’s Poultry Pages Lotsa information on raising baby chicks, making your own feed and earning a living with eggs.
Feathersite an encyclopedia of all things poultry related. Also has a site regarding rare breeds of poultry.
Seattle Tilth Nonprofit organic gradening group .
American Livestock Breeds Conservancy Pioneer organizsaiton working to conserve historic breeds and genetic diversity in livestock.
SandHill preservation This small family farm in Iowa sells heirloom garden seeds and rare poultry.
If I ever get a coop, I’m christening it Poultry in Motion.
HAL BRISTON Your linkage is farked. How am I suppose to view chicken pron if it don’t work!!!11111!!! :dubious: you tease.
Gulp and that, my friends, is why the turtles ate mine.
I confess - I was a city girl who pretended to be country. I made jelly from our muscadine grapes, canned a few peaches, learned to cook from scratch, sewed a few quilts, chased a cow or two from our yard, and reared my kids making mudpies.
Mr. AdoptaMom has often said he would’ve loved to have been born 150+ years ago and lived in the untamed wilderness. I’ve always been quick to tell him he would’ve done so withOUT me, as I would’ve been one of the “fancy” women he came to town every 3-6 months to visit. True love be damned, I couldn’t live the life of a true pioneer or country gal.
Chickens in the yard to me mean a rural environment, not neccesarily poor.
Maybe to you. A neighbor has about a dozen mixed-kind of ducks and geese he keeps in the pond in summer, in the barn in winter. Predators reduce the flock, but they are self-perpetuating for the most part.
Recently, he transported about 6 of them to the local school’s 4th grade class, took them out of the carrier and let each student hold one. It was a pretty noisy and poopy classroom, but no one got injured, so I take issue with your “evil” and “vicious” comment.
Wow, lots of new replies, thanks all!
Hey Zoe, that’s exactly the way I dispatched our turkeys and ducks last year, our place came with a killing cone on a post by the woodshed. It’s always interesting to see people’s reactions when they see it and ask what it is.
toadbriar, the theory behind braining the birds is that they die quicker and the muscles around the feathers don’t tense up, which makes plucking easier. My experience seems to bear this out.
Gato, we’ve got just under 10 acres, so there is plenty of room to roam. I am seriously considering the chicken tractor idea, seems like a good compromise. Being able to control their movements will also prevent stepping in a pile of chicken poop on the way out to the pool, which occurred a couple of times last year with my free range ducks.