Raleigh, N.C. — Urban chicken keeping is a growing trend across the Triangle.  Raleigh residents are allowed to have laying hens in backyards, Durham residents need a permit for household hens and those living in Chapel Hill can have up to 10 hens. However, chicken keeping is still illegal in Cary.

Bev Norwood's has had backyard chickens for four years.

"I just had this thing that I wanted chickens,” she said.

Norwood built the Chicken Ranch coop at her Raleigh's Five Points home. She now has four hens and a steady supply of fresh eggs. However, the eggs aren't the chickens' only by-product.

"The chicken poop goes on my compost and eventually gets used in the landscape,” Norwood said.

Chickens also turn over compost piles by eating table scraps and bugs. The benefits of chicken raising had led to an 'egg-centric' movement among urban areas.

"It's amazing. It may be exponential,” chicken keeper Bob Davis said.

Davis raises baby chicks.

"These two birds will actually wind up with a family in Chapel Hill,” he said as he showed off his chicks.

Davis also teaches chicken-keeping courses several times a year. First and foremost, he said, you need to plan the coop carefully.

"If you design it to where you keep the predators out, then there are a lot of heartaches you can avoid,” Davis said.

The chickens cost about $5 each.

It costs Norwood about $12 a month to feed her four hens, and she spends about 10 minutes a day caring for them. She said to expect one egg almost everyday from each hen.

Some people start off wanting chickens for the eggs and other benefits, but eventually, they become attached to the birds, Davis said.

"Pretty soon, they've got names,” he added.

"Rosie, Penny, Scarlett and Bonnie Blue,” Norwood has named her chickens.

"They are so much fun. I plan to have chickens as long as I can. I love it."

Norwood is part of an annual tour of Raleigh chicken coops known as Hen-side the Beltline Tour d'Coop. It started with a few coops four years ago, but this year's tour featured two dozen. To learn more about raising chickens in the Triangle, check out the Hen-side the Beltline blog.