Anyone have Urban chickens as pets?

I helped move a chicken coop onto "a friend's" back yard in a subdivision somewhere in suburban New York. (legality of chickens in that suburb unclear, hence circumlocution). They have had an average of 8 chickens over the last 3 years. Based on their experiences, I report the following:
1. the fresh, organic eggs are truly delicious--yellower yolks, more flavor than store-bought.
2. BUT each chicken will lay eggs frequently ONLY for the first year. After that they seem to biologically "retire" and lay eggs much more infrequently.
3. At that point you must decide whether to support non-productive chickens or turn them into chicken soup and get new ones. This family had named them and treated them like pets, so the chickens have a guaranteed retirement and egg production is correspondingly curtailed. Chicks are adorably cute, adult hens less so.
4. Chickens are dumb and non-mammalian (ex-dinosaurs). Chicken shit should be avoided except when aged, mixed with soil, and used as fertilizer.
5. Most adult dogs not raised with chickens will see them as "prey". One chicken was lost to the family dog digging under the fence and whacking one chicken.
6. Be prepared for chicken psychological problems such as "broodiness", which results in non-egg-laying, and being "hen-pecked" where the chickens gang up on one member of the flock and start pecking its feathers out. They isolated the victim of the hen-pecking in the garage until it recovered and did successfully return it to the flock.
7. Yes, suburban chickens must avoid roosters, but YOU CANNOT TELL THE GENDER OF A CHICK WITH 100% ACCURACY! One of their purchased chicks turned out to be a rooster and had to be retired.
8. Chickens will eat most human table scraps, which saves on wastage and food costs, but this family only gave them vegetable leftovers as a matter of principle.
9. There are many different breeds of chickens with curious characteristics--some lay bluish eggs and so forth.
Hope this helps.

 

guy down the street has chickens and throws the chicken bleep on his flower beds every sunday. let's just say i'm glad i don't live any closer. godiva? GODIVA? hello???

 

"Yardbirds" refers to chickens.

 

they had a few hits.

 

We buy our eggs from local grower, who has dozens penned in his property. He sells them cheaper than the local grocery ($2/doz) and all he feeds them is cracked corn, laying pellets, and whatever table scraps the dogs don't get.

That pretty much eliminates any desire that I would have to keep one as a pet.
ED's chickens have a huge pen to run around in (like: an acre) and a couple of dogs to keep an eye out for predators, and one helluva mean rooster.