DALLAS – Backyard chickens get a bad rap for stinking and being loud, both things chicken owners say they aren’t. After the pandemic raised egg prices and created shortages, many people adopted the chicken lifestyle, leading more cities to consider changes to their chicken order.
According to a recent ruling by the city council, Plano residents can now own backyard chickens. That comes after a city ordinance was issued at the end of September. However, the ordinance is still at the discretion of homeowners associations or contracts.
“In Plano you could have horses and goats and the like, but not chickens. Strange, ”said John Ramos, owner of Urban Chicken. “I’m always excited when new towns or cities in the Dallas area allow chickens.”
While Ramos says he sees people calling backyard chickens a “fad,” he firmly believes it isn’t. He says he couldn’t have kept his business going for ten years if only it was something that is trending now.
“I think it’s always been something that people are interested in. If I had known, I would have had chickens as a kid, I would probably have walked chickens instead of asking my mom about a dog. You are so much simpler than a dog, much simpler than a dog, and you get something from them. I mean you get love from your dog. That is a matter of course. But to get love and eggs. I mean you can eat every day. That’s pretty nice, ”Ramos said.
Eggs from backyard chickens at John Ramos’ home in McKinney. (Spectrum News 1 / Stacy Rickard)
Ramos is a barn builder who builds barns valued at $ 3,000 to $ 15,000 for seasoned chicken owners. While that may seem like a high price to pay, Ramos said you are investing in a structure that will outlast the chickens that live in it.
“My coops are not for the people who are just starting out, I would say. But it is beneficial to spend as much money as possible on your coop because that will be your longest thing that you will have forever.” said Ramos. “I think the boom I’ve had last year since COVID has tidied up the stalls because people don’t want to clean up their chicken coops, they have to go back to work. They don’t have time to clean their chicken coops like that Like it used to be. And that was an upward trend. I mean, my business with custom coops has always been great just because my coops sell themselves. “
Kiki Boyett in a stall in McKinney. (Spectrum News 1 / Stacy Rickard)
McKinney-based Kiki Boyett is a newbie to chicken ownership. She says it was her dream to own backyard chickens and have fresh farm eggs so she made sure she did all of her research.
“I love eggs, we are all great foodies, and I think fresh farm eggs are much better than eggs from the supermarket. And I thought if I had chickens I could just come out and get my own eggs and they would be as fresh as I would ever eat them. I had to watch every YouTube video, read every book, blog, everything that could go wrong with a chicken. “What breed of chicken do I want because this is Texas? What color will the eggs be? ‘ You know, all of the things, ”said Boyett. “So I knew a lot more about chickens than probably the normal chicken novice.”
Not everyone is as hardworking as they are when it comes to making sure they live in a chicken friendly area.
“There are all these people in NextDoor or Facebook chicken groups who say, ‘Oh, I have all these chickens’ and either I have to go back to work because I didn’t work during the pandemic and now I am, or I can have no chickens. So they got these chickens without permission or without looking at it or something and then they say, ‘My neighbor whistled on me and I have to get rid of my six girls’ and I think, ‘Why would you do this?’ I would know.”
Ramos reiterates Boyett’s feeling that many people joined the poultry party prematurely during the pandemic. In addition to calls for building and cleaning chicken coops, Ramos receives at least two calls a week for unwanted chicken removal.
“You know how the people who got it during COVID say, ‘Oh, it’s just something we can do during COVID because we’re home,’ which is very unfortunate,” said Ramos. “They are [chickens] not like a toy, you know where to just throw it away at the end of the time you’re sick of it. What has happened a lot and is still happening now. “
If Boyett has any advice for new chicken owners, then you know what you’re getting into and know the laws of the country. While she’s surrounded by neighbors who all have their own chickens, make sure your HOA is on board when you join the bird migration.
“I had to get approval for my HOA before I replaced the falling fence and they had to replace me. Of course I’m not going to try to get chickens without checking to make sure, ”Boyett said.
Boyett wants people to know something that surprised them while researching chickens in the backyard.
“Something I didn’t know when I started owning chickens in earnest, as opposed to a novelty, they’re like pets. They won’t lay eggs forever. They’ll lay eggs for a while and then they stop and then you’re in for a while. I named them after my grandmothers – I can’t possibly ship my chickens and eat them for dinner. It is not an option. What do you do with a chicken that doesn’t lay eggs? Well, you get rid of what nobody wants, a chicken that doesn’t lay eggs. You eat it, but I can’t eat my grandmother or you can take care of it for the next 10 years. “
There is no state law that regulates poultry such as chickens, turkeys, geese and ducks. The best thing for an interested chicken owner to do is to look up their own town code to see if you can have a back yard full of poultry.
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