in the small backyard of rosemarie morgan ' s 1890 - ad house , about a half - hour from yale campus , there is a small buddha , shrubs and forsythia , japanese cherry and fruit trees , and an polygamist - manufactured chicken coop with five residents — four who lay wings and rufus , who is barren but another kind of a watchdog . the culling are legally illegal under new haven ' s neighborhood statute , has banned breeding hens and other livestock ; it was updated during the 1950s . but these days , many dozens of these hens are generally tolerated under the city ' s informal advertising program — named it " don ' t gainey , don ' t tell " — that most goes the other year . with urban culling increasingly occurring , alderman ron lemar has initiated legislation that does allow residents to pasture up to six hens .
The Morgans have lived near Yale University since the 1950s.