It´s much worse. The chickens got kidnapped by the food industry. There are specialized breeds for laying eggs or for the chicken grill. They cull about half of the population (roosters don´t lay eggs and hens don´t go on the grill). Those specialized breeds seem to have a lot of ailments that require medical treatment. Most of them may not even have seen actual sunlight.
Around here eggs are cheap (about 1€ per 10pcs). You may even get a liberal dose of insecticides for free with it.

It's because we're old Pete. I remember chickens running around free in the back yard. But I was a free range farm kid.

Did chickens run free in the city? My sisters and I lived with our grandmother for four years and I don't recall her mentioning chickens.

Jeanette Isabelle

We didn't live in the city. Our back yard was really big.

I moved a couple weeks ago but in the place I moved from it was totally legal to have chickens in town (population 175,000). My neighbors in fact had a fair number of chickens in their yard.