Backyard coops are smaller coops often surrounded by a fence (sometimes made with chicken wire) to allow the chickens an area to roam, peck, and hunt insects, while contained. Sometimes this type of "yarding" is mobile, and takes the form of chicken tractors. the popular Eglu brand of backyard chicken coop

Many people, especially in rural areas, keep a small flock of chickens to provide themselves with eggs and meat, as sustenance livestock, rather than wholly commercial benefit. A growing number of people keep chickens in urban environments as well. This has led to an increase in chicken coops such as the Eglu, which are designed for urban environments with less space, and less of a utilitarian style.

In urban settings, there is often separate legislation which regulates backyard farming of livestock. For instance, in Oakland, California one can not even own a rooster, and hens must remain twenty feet from dwellings, schools and churches.

Yarding In Contrast to Backyard Chicken Coops

While often confused with free range farming, yarding is actually a separate method of poultry culture by which chickens and cows are raised together. The distinction is that free-range poultry are either totally unfenced, or the fence is so distant that it has little influence on their freedom of movement. Yarding is common technique used by small farms in the Northeastern US.

Daily releases out of hutches or coops allows for instinctual nature for the chickens with protections from predators. The hens usually lay eggs either on the ground of the coop or in baskets if provided by the farmer. This technique can be complicated if used with roosters though, mostly because of difficulty getting them into the coop and to clean the coop while it is inside. This territorial nature is apparent while outside in which they have a brood of hens and sometimes even informal land claims. This can endanger people unaware of the existence of the territories who are attacked by the larger birds.