Spring is a great time to start a flock of backyard baby chickens! Did you know that in the city of San Diego it is perfectly legal to have backyard chickens? Chickens are wonderful pets and do surprising well with other animals once they are full-grown. They help out also by searching your yard for ants, fleas and other unwanted critters and their manure is excellent for your compost. Hens are reasonably quiet too and you don't need a roster for them to produce delicious eggs year round. Your neighbors will learn to love them also if you share your eggs with them. Shortly after Russ and I purchased our home in 2009 we started our first flock of 4 chickens. They produced wonderful eggs for us for almost 5 years.
Today my sons are now 5 and 3 years old. My oldest son Lincoln learned about baby chickens at school one day. He came home so excited to tell me what he had learned and I knew it was time for us to start another flock. I contacted Dare 2 Dream Farms in Lompoc, CA and they delivered our 3 baby chickens to our home just before Easter. My boys were thrilled! They have been big helpers and it has been an awesome learning experience for all of us.
Check out our videos to see how we got started and to learn what you will need to start your own flock.
Our 3 week old chicken are out growing their brooder box so the boys and I moved them to their enclosed coop yesterday. Check out this video to see how things went.
For more videos like this please visit our YouTube channel.
How Many Chickens Can You Have?
The number of hen chickens allowed in San Diego:
This depends on the size of your property and chicken coop. Your must provide 6 square feet of coop space per chicken.
Up to 5 chickens if coop is located at least 13 feet from the back property and 5 feet from the side property line in the rear yard.
Up to 15 chickens if coop is located 15 feet from property line in the rear yard.
Up to 25 chickens if coop and enclosure or run is a minimum of 50 from any structure used for residential purposes.
The number of chickens allowed in Imperial Beach:
Up to 3 chickens per single-family dwelling provided the property is a minimum of 5000 square feet in size. The chicken coop and run must be fenced in and kept within at least 15 feet of the property line in the rear yard.
More Resources:
Keeping Chickens in San Diego
Dare 2 Dream Farms Website
Scratch and Peck Feeds Website
Other Helpful Youtube Videos:
5 Deadly Mistakes for Raising Chickens http://youtu.be/EBBwcQ_DBnc
Backyard Chickens 101 http://youtu.be/YvOW56x29B0
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