Should You Allow Your Renters to Keep Chickens or Bees?

By Kimberly Rau, MassLandlords, Inc.

Keeping backyard chickens or bees isn’t just for farmers and specialists anymore. Many residential properties proudly host chicken coops and beehives. And with a little attentiveness to what your neighborhood will bear, you could easily lock in some local good will, and attract longtime tenants, if you’re willing to offer the opportunity to your renters.

The practices of keeping backyard chickens and bees have exploded in popularity in recent years. Current estimates indicate that Massachusetts is home to more than 4,000 beekeepers, managing more than 40,000 hives across the state. We were not able to find Massachusetts-specific data about backyard chickens, but one 2018 survey shows that approximately 10 million U.S. households kept chickens.

Keeping chickens or bees can have perks, including environmental benefits. But should you allow them at your rental properties? Here’s what to consider if your tenant wants to try their hand at home beekeeping or chicken raising.

Chickens are adorable, and can provide fresh eggs and enjoyment for their keepers. But do your homework before allowing them in your yard. (Image License: Unsplash)

Check Your City or Town Bylaws About Chickens and Bees

First things first: check what your municipality allows regarding keeping poultry and bees in residential areas. Though the state of Massachusetts does not require a permit for beekeeping, cities and towns may have more strict rules. For instance, beekeeping is legal in Cambridge, but residents who wish to do so must apply for a permit. However, New Bedford prohibits beekeeping.

The laws surrounding chicken keeping vary widely from town to town. For example, every one of the 15 towns on Cape Cod appears to have different rules for poultry keeping. Falmouth simply requires that people who keep chickens adequately care for and shelter their birds. Mashpee requires you to register your poultry with the town and have annual inspections, and roosters are not allowed on plots less than five acres in size. Yarmouth allows chickens but requires you to have a license and has detailed rules about setbacks, coop design and maintenance. Provincetown requires a permit from the Board of Appeals for any lot smaller than five acres in size. And that’s just on the cape. You may be surprised to learn what rules your city does – or does not – have about chickens.

Make sure you check separately about whether roosters are allowed, and be considerate of your neighbors. People who might not care about a flock of relatively quiet chickens may have different feelings about roosters. Contrary to what cartoons would have you believe, they don’t only crow when the sun comes up. Even if your town says roosters are okay, you don’t want to be the source of multiple noise complaints when Foghorn Leghorn starts up at all hours.

There are so-called no-crow collars that you can purchase for roosters to wear, but they’re not a miracle cure. The No-Crow Rooster Collars page states that “[t]his collar is not guaranteed to fully stop your rooster from crowing. Rather, it is designed to significantly reduce the volume of his crowing.”

What Are the Benefits to Keeping Backyard Chickens?

Proponents of backyard chicken coops are more than willing to sing the praises of keeping poultry mere steps from the back door. The Happy Chicken Coop has a laundry list of reasons why home chickens are the way to go. Chickens will keep the insect population in the yard lower, eat weeds and weed seeds, provide fertilizer for the garden and till the soil.

And of course, there are fresh eggs. Chickens who have reached peak laying age will average an egg a day, keeping their owners, and probably their neighbors, in fresh eggs year round. If you have a multi-family property, you can even put in the lease that eggs should be shared with other residents. Egg production is based around hours of daylight, but with artificial light, chickens will lay eggs through the winter.

If you are worried about the lawn, try not to be. There are ways to keep the grass green and the chickens happy. Chickens do love to eat grass, but a few chickens won’t be able to take out an entire yard’s worth of it. Keeping the flock appropriately sized for the lot will keep this under control.

That said, the nitrogen in chicken waste can kill grass if allowed to build up. A free-ranging flock will distribute its poop fairly evenly, minimizing the problem (chicken poop is actually great fertilizer). If waste builds up in a chicken run, the area under the run will be smothered and grass won’t grow. Keeping the run clean will help with this issue if free ranging is not an option. And regardless of whether you can free range the chickens, your tenants must keep the coop clean to ensure the birds stay healthy.

Coop cleaning is not a quick task, but it’s important that it is done frequently. If your tenants keep chickens, ask that they keep a coop cleaning schedule, including how long it takes them to clean the structure, and what products and tools they use. If they can’t do this, don’t allow them to keep chickens. Otherwise, the mess you will be left with when they move out is going to fall to you to clean up, and it’s going to be incredible.

What Are the Benefits to Backyard Beehives and Mason Bee Habitats?

The two types of bees people most like keeping are honey bees and mason bees. Both types of bees can be kept fairly easily in yards with the right habitats, and they are not terribly expensive. Both types of bees are pollinators, meaning they are excellent for the environment, and honey bees also make honey, which is delicious.

Both honey and mason bees are relatively calm species, but they do have some differences, including appearance.

Honey bees are social creatures that live in hives. Since a bee’s hive houses their queen as well as their honey supply, a honey bee will come to its defense. However, honey bees don’t sting without reason. A female honey bee’s stinger is barbed, meaning she will die once she has stung something. This makes honey bees unlikely to sting someone unless they, or the hive, are threatened.

Mason bees are solitary creatures that live in their own little crevices. That’s why mason bee habitats look so different from beehives. Mason bees have smooth stingers, meaning they won’t die if they sting someone, but they rarely find cause to. Without a hive to protect, mason bees are not usually defensive. As a side note, mason bees do not chew into wood to make their habitats. Those are carpenter bees.

Honey bees make honey and pollinate the surrounding area. But since they have a hive to support, honey bees bring most of the pollen back to the hive for the colony’s use. Honey bees are not native to the United States, but the general consensus is that hobby hives do not create enough competition with native pollinators to cause problems.

The real super pollinators are mason bees. They do not produce honey, or have hives to support. This means they are not bringing large amounts of pollen back to the hive with them. Just 250 to 300 female mason bees can pollinate an entire acre of apple or cherry trees. This makes them 120 times more effective than honey or bumble bees at pollinating an area. As a bonus, most species of mason bees are native to North America.

There are more differences between mason and honey bees, but those are the most relevant ones for this article. Either species will provide environmental benefits, and honey bees will also provide honey to their keepers.

Beekeeper and landlord Val Mayo says to use caution when considering allowing renters to keep bees. (Image license: CC by SA Val Mayo)

What Are the Drawbacks to Keeping Chickens or Bees?

First and foremost, both chickens and bees require a large time commitment from their keepers and should not be purchased on a whim. But what are some of the drawbacks?

Chickens Require Constant Care and May Attract Predators

Chickens need daily tending, including fresh water and food, and frequent coop cleaning. Their coop must be kept safe and secure from the elements as well as predators. Eggs must be collected. Chickens can get sick and may require medical attention. If your renter wants to take a vacation, they will need to find someone who can properly care for the birds in their absence. This may be tricky depending on who they know.

As stated earlier, chickens may also be bad for your lawn if there are too many of them or they are not properly cared for. Make sure your tenant is prepared to do so (and that they know you will deduct from the security deposit to fix the lawn if necessary).

Finally, chickens may attract natural predators in the area, including coyotes, foxes, skunks and hawks. Your neighbor’s cats or dogs may already be doing that job. But recently, Massachusetts has seen an uptick in bears killing chickens and damaging coops, to the point that the incidents have become the number one source of conflict between humans and bears in the state. It’s important that any chicken coops be properly secured, preferably (per the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife) with an electric fence around the coop.

Honey Bees and Mason Bees Require Attention

Honey bees may be wild animals, but kept bees require care from the people who own them. They need a constant source of fresh water, space around their hives (particularly in their flight path), feeding and constant attention to ensure the hive is healthy. The hives are full of honey, making them susceptible to pests, including ants and mites. Then there is the process of collecting honey, which requires time and attention to detail. This is not a “set it and forget it” operation by any means.

Honey bees may also swarm. This happens when large numbers of honey bees break off from the main hive to form new colonies, and is a sign of a healthy hive. Though swarming is not typically dangerous, it can be alarming for people who do not understand honey bee habits. You may get frantic calls from the neighbors if they see a swarm. Communicate with the neighbors and encourage them to contact the tenant if they see one. Your tenant should then call an experienced beekeeper to relocate the swarm if they are not well-versed in doing so themselves.

Mason bees are comparatively easy to care for, but you must harvest their cocoons in early summer, or risk your bee population getting sick from parasites or disease. This is not a difficult process, but it can be off-putting to some (there are videos online of mason bee habitat cleaning, and they can be gross). If your tenant is not willing to put the work in for mason bees and literally get their hands dirty, this may not be the hobby for them.

A Beekeeper Landlord’s Perspective: Use Caution, Avoid Multi-Family Properties

MassLandlords member Val Mayo is the vice president of the Boston Area Beekeepers Association, and has advocated for code changes that would allow more people to keep bees in urban environments. Despite her love for bees, she urges landlords looking to allow beekeeping in rental situations to proceed with a lot of caution.

“I care about beekeeping, I care about tenants, I care about the landlords,” Mayo said. “I don’t want to take away opportunities.” But, in addition to local restrictions and setback rules, there can be hidden challenges to keeping pollinators on the property.

“I couldn’t get people to work on my property for quite a few years because I have an apiary and I had to make some adjustments,” Mayo told MassLandlords, adding that heavy construction sounds can also make bees more defensive. “People are afraid and it is a liability.”

Mayo noted that the situation is particularly precarious in multi-family arrangements, where tenant disagreements could lead to someone attempting to sabotage the beehives. She does not recommend apiaries or chicken coops for multi-family properties.

“I would feel differently if the property is a single-family home,” she said. “But multi-family can become a problem. It adds another layer of liability and management.”

This may not be what you’re wanting to hear if you are a bee enthusiast, but it’s practical advice from someone who is both a beekeeper and a landlord. If you are looking to allow beehives of any kind, particularly to a multi-family arrangement, make sure you are in local compliance and that everyone is on board with the plan.

How to Talk to Your Tenants Who Have Backyard Animal Requests

Now that you have some basic knowledge about beekeeping and backyard chickens, you will be well-informed if your renters, or prospective renters, approach you asking about an apiary or chicken coop.

If you know that you absolutely do not want to allow chickens or bees on your property, then there probably won’t be much discussion. You can prohibit bees and/or chickens. If you feel this way about it, you should put it in your lease. But if you are on the fence, or think the request could be a good idea, read on.

The first thing you will want to consider is your renters themselves. Are they responsible? Do they pay their rent on time, communicate effectively with you, and take care of the property already? If the answer is “yes, these are model tenants,” then perhaps you’ll want to consider granting their request. Bonus: any renter who wants to put together something that is that hard to dismantle and move is probably planning to stay a long time.

On the other hand, if your renters are already showing a lack of responsibility with paying the rent, or cleaning up after other animals, or taking care of the place, you may want to hold off.

If you are inclined to consider their request, don’t be afraid to put them on the spot a bit. You know the laws in your town, now ask them if they’re aware of what the rules are. Ask them what their plan is for the coop or apiary, where they want to put it, and what their ideas are for keeping their animals safe. Find out what they plan to do when the lease is up, and make sure you specify that removing the coops or beehives are their responsibility if they move out.

Next, ask them if they’ve run their idea by the neighbors. If you have a multi-family lot, ask them if they’ve spoken to the people who literally live right next to them.

Find out if your renters have any prior experience with the animals they want to keep. Have they kept bees before, or raised chickens? If so, did they do so in a rental, and can they provide references? It’s not necessarily a deal-breaker if they haven’t done this before (everyone has to start somewhere), but if they have and can prove they did well with the task, that could go a long way to reassuring you that the venture could be a success.

Finally, if you’re sold on the idea, be sure to set limits for how many chickens or beehives you want to allow. Don’t end up like the landlord who said their tenant could have some chickens, only to find out the renter moved 100 chickens and five mature roosters onto the property. We have an animal addendum that specifically recommends defining how many chickens are permitted, as well as the size and quantity of beehives or tunnels.

Conclusion

Keeping chickens or bees can be fun, educational and good for the environment. Bees are relatively low-impact on your property, and chickens, properly kept, shouldn’t be too much trouble either.

However, it’s important that you can trust your tenants to responsibly take care of the animals they choose to keep, not just for the sake of your property, but for the sake of other tenants, the neighbors and the animals themselves. If you have any doubt about whether your renters can handle the full responsibility of keeping beehives or a chicken coop, you can easily fall back on the “no pets” clause in your lease, or discuss your concerns with the tenants. But as long as your municipality allows it, and you are comfortable with what your renters plan to do, you might get some fresh eggs or honey out of the deal.