The Art of Raising Laying Hens in the City

A rapidly growing practice

1. The laying hen is traditionally raised in rural areas. However, with the new municipal regulations that took effect in 2020, it is now possible to raise them in urban areas. It must be said that maintaining a farm is a major challenge. Indeed, it requires a great deal of commitment and time. The changes were introduced by the Régie Intermunicipale de Services Animaliers de la vallée du Richelieu (RISAVR). The goal is to allow people to enjoy city life—with access to stores and restaurants—while also experiencing the pleasure of raising chickens.

What You Need to Know

2. Like any pet, laying hens have their own characteristics that help you understand what you’re dealing with. In fact, they generally lay one egg per day, for a total of 250 eggs per year. That’s equivalent to 62 dozens of fresh eggs.

3. In addition, their normal lifespan is between 8 and 10 years. They become capable of reproducing or laying edible eggs by the 19th week. By the time they are 1½ years old, egg-laying begins to slow down.

4. Chickens, just like humans, are social, sensitive, and easily stressed. Keeping two chickens helps maximize their productivity. Otherwise, they won’t feel safe and, as a result, won’t lay eggs. During the day, they should be let out in the morning and brought inside in the evening to protect them from predators such as raccoons, coyotes, and foxes, whose numbers skyrocketed in 2020.

How does fertilization by a hen take place?

5. Here is some information taken from two separate YouTube videos: “How Chickens Lay Eggs” from the PlaneteAnimal channel and “Is There a Chick in Every Egg?” from the ARTE Family FR channel.

6. It’s important to know that these are very special creatures. First of all, before mating, the rooster circles the hen in small circles with his wings skimming the ground. As the PlaneteAnimal channel explains, the rooster has a sort of balloon that acts as a penis, through which he transfers a sac of sperm into her cloaca. The cloaca is a small opening. It is similar to the vagina in women.

7. The exception is that she produces millions of oocytes (eggs), which turn yellow during the transformation phase, when they travel to a small tube where the egg white forms. The eggshell is formed from the calcium she accumulates in her bones.

How is a chick born?

8. That’s where the magic happens. When a hen has several eggs, she will incubate them. As explained in the video from the ARTE Family FR channel, it is during the development phase that the yolk—more commonly known as the ovum and located in the hen’s ovaries—takes its final form. It will become a chick if the ovum is fertilized following mating. Otherwise, the egg will remain in its original state and end up on a plate.

Grooming

9. When it comes to preening, these very noisy birds can easily produce 1 kg of feces (droppings) in a single week. The presence of manure spread evenly on the ground helps these two-winged creatures preen properly.

The new regulations to follow

10. Hens must be able to drink water that does not come from ice and must be provided with food in sufficient quantity and quality. They must be able to eat and drink from feeders that are inaccessible to other animals. Furthermore, the urban chicken coop must be kept exceptionally clean, be heated in winter, be spacious and well-lit, and provide a certain level of security. The chickens must also be able to receive appropriate care in the event of injury, illness, or distress, while being prevented from escaping freely.