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Is permission needed from the local council to keep a few chucks ? - no cockerel.
When I was in the country I had land and kept lots of different breeds of chickens and ducks, permission wasn't needed, but I'm now I'm back in 'town' - hopefully temporarily, I'm not sure if I should have permission to keep say 4/6 ex-batt girls.
I read it online somewhere this past week.

It's only a small, but very secure, garden, I have a henhouse with small run, and would let them out into the garden during the daytime.

Any advice please ? don't want to upset the neighbours !

There are a few people on here who keep back garden chickens so they'll be able to answer you more definitively, WL.

My understanding of the issue is that you don't, providing there's nothing in your lease etc that specifically requires it.

And as long as the neighbours don't complain you should be OK - maybe check with them first?

You could start by checking your deeds or tenancy agreement that there`s no clause banning livestock - although our deeds say no livestock and I ignored them as they were sixty years old!
You could mention it casually to the immediate neighbours - without making it sound a big deal.
When we got ours I asked the council to take a look at our setup and a really nice bloke from Environmental Health looked at the house and run and said there`d be no problem. He commented that people who don`t know about hens say they`ll attract rats whereas rats would only be attracted to any food lying around so our system of feeding where food was in a container in the run, taken in at night and never scattered around, was ideal.
The neighbours have never objected over the last two years. They even like the sound of them 'bock bocking' around the garden.
Good luck! Let us know how you get on.

As Merry said, some tenancy agreements/contracts say you can't keep poultry. I don't know why these are in contracts but presumably something to do with public health issues. We have bantys in our small back garden and the landlord did not have an issue with it. The neighbours all love them as well, showing them off as the 'neighbourhood chickens' :) I think if you just make sure you ask your neighbours and keep it clean then there shouldn't be an issue.

Edit - Just reread your post, if you are not going to be resident for very long you will have to consider what you will do with them when you leave. I hear ex-batts are way to tough and stringy to be worth eating...

thanks for your advice - it gets complicated when you're back in 'civilisation' doesn't it ?

There's nothing on my tenancy agreement to say I can't keep livestock - so I won't rock the boat by asking !
I'll tell the immediate neighbours though, I'm fortunate to live in a detached house on a corner plot, so a few chucks won't cause anyone any nuisance.
I'll have to be scrupulous with them though, I don't want to encourge rats when you're in an old smallholding with old tumbledown outbuildings it's near impossible 'not' to have them - I'll make sure all food scraps are brought it each night and hang their feeders up somewhere - does this :sound alright ?
re: eating them never ! they'd be my pets !
I'm aiming at staying here for approx two years - if 'he upstairs' agrees, and then look for somewhere else, if I've still got the girlies, they'll come with me

I'm so looking forward to having them again, I really miss them

All sounds good to me. I've found that keeping the food in a metal dustbin (picked mine up really cheaply at Ike@) works fine, both in keeping the food fresh and in keeping the rats away.

Have fun with your new girls.

Oh, and yes, ex bats are far too tough to eat but do make tasty stock.

Zoe