Free ranging chooks

Hi, hope you can all help me as I'm new to chicken keeping.

I've got 4 chooks that are free ranging in my back garden. The garden is about 20 ft square with 5ft walls with a lovely area for my chooks to scratch around and they are very happy and laying every day but today a friend of mine has told me she thinks that legally they have to be kept a certain distance from the house, can anybody advise me on this?, I love having the girls come to the back door to talk to me!!!!

If you had to keep chickens a certain distance from the house, then a lot of our chook keepers with handkerchief sized gardens would have to give their chooks up.

Perhaps you have to keep them a certain distance from someone else's house?  But I've never heard of it either.  Is your friend a chicken keeper?  does she know what she's talking about?   

Well if you have a small garden, the only issue I would watch out for is probably vermin, mice/rats/smells and also flies can be irritating. However, by practising good husbandry (which I am sure you do! ) there shouldn't really be a problem

I checked with my local council (urban chook keeper) and no issues apart from roosters - not all are the same but... Of course if you want them to stay at the bottom of the garden, you'd best make it very clear to them that is where they are NOT allowed to go. Mrs Bruced's attempts to keep them of our terrace keep getting defiant chicken stares in return and not a sign of moving.