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As we are soon moving house to a council house i am very much looking forward to starting my veg garden as well as growing veg i wouldlike to keep some hens so we can have fresh free range organic eggs.
I joined the armed forces when i was 16(im now 28)so all my grown up life i have lived in housing owned by the m.o.d so this next house will be my first council house.

In m.o.d housing we were not allowed to grow our own veg or keep livestock but i cant see any problem growing veg in a council house garden.
My query is would i have to ask the councils permission to keep laying hens? and would they have to come round and inspect the house/garden and is there any licience etc i would have to pay for in order to keep them?

erm this might be my field seeing as I was hounded from a private estate for keeping a whole load of hens....2!

You don't need a licence to keep a few hens, cockerels will be frowned on or definitely not allowed.

In the first instance you should ask the housing officer the rules on keep a few hens for, and this is the important part, your on egg consumption. DO NOT mention dispatching and eating the chickens yourself. You may then be asked to seek the consent of your neighbours....arh fickle lot that that they well be and hopefully not stuck too far up their on backsides!

You may be visited by the environmental health, especially if someone complains about vermin. These people are usually on your side, work with them. If all is ok and they can't see you are attracting vermin any more than the litter bug up the road, they will never visit you again. Indeed they will actually defend you against those with red hot poker stuck where the sun doesn't shine. Don't keep your feed in a wooden shed, the enviro frown on this.

You may be required to keep them in a run. May be a good idea in an estate any as you don't want fido having your tasty meal!

My run I couldn't move, better to be able to move them. The run was partially covered against the rain and the floor covered in wood chips for ease of cleaning out. You will need to clean them out fairly regularly to stop them smelling. I used jeyes fluid to wash them down with and it's on the DEFRA approved list. But there are plenty of other disinfectants.

Can't recall completely but I believe my council where I used to live said I could keep up to 6 hens, no cockerels.


Seek the council permission first and follow their lead.

Ask the council first because they are almost certain to have restrictions on what, if any, livestock you may keep. It can depend when your house was built, the earlier inter-war houses will have restrictions because more livestock was kept then. For more modern homes it wasn't thought of as necessary to bother with such rules.

We live in an ex council house with a condition on it that we can only keep "cats, dogs or budgerigars". We have four large egg-laying budgies out the back...

I did enquire of the council about permission to keep the hens and got a very snotty "you don't need permission to keep hens" response. I've kept that safe in case I need it later.

They shouldn't need to inspect as long as there are no complaints about noise, mess or vermin.

If it proves no-go, do check out your local allotments and what the regs are there. Some are suitable (i.e secure) for keeping hens and it will depend on the site rules whether you can do so. In theory we could keep our hens on our allotment, but it backs onto a park and it's illegal to shoot two-legged vermin.

Wassail

Karen

I always hand out the odd half dozen eggs to the neighbours every now and then, you would be amazed how a few eggs oil the wheels! folks are more tolerant if they gain occasionally too.

kind thougths
Deb

my house is council and as long as it is tidy we are allowed to use the garden for pretty much anything we want.
I did ask to make sure about the chickens and was told it was no problem at all but as with all pets they mustn't cause a problem to anyone else and must be kept clean and appropriatly. we have ducks as well now and have never had any problems from our neighbours, even when one of my hens started crowing mind you she wasn't doing it in the morning!

I always hand out the odd half dozen eggs to the neighbours every now and then, you would be amazed how a few eggs oil the wheels! folks are more tolerant if they gain occasionally too.

I tried that with my old neighbours, but they stuck there noses up saying ewwwwwwwwwwwwwythey come from chickens bum, much cleaner from the super market So where the hell do they think those ones come from?????

Thanks for all the great replys.

Once ive moved in and settled i will make a call to the council to enquire if it is allowed and if it is im sure i will be asking loads of questions.