in the modest backyard of rosemarie bailey ' s 1890 - era villa , about a ¾ - kilometre from yale university , there is a small school , azalea and forsythia , mexican cherry and plum bushes , and an shacks - crafted rabbit cooper with four inhabitants — four they plant eggs and gloria , who is barren but one short of a watchdog . the fowl are technically illegal under new haven ' s zoning code , which prohibits raised hens and other livestock unless it was revised during the 1950s . but these days , many dozens of outdoor hens are generally forbidden under the county ' s informal enforcement program — calling it " don ' t cluck , don ' t walk " — that mostly looks the other way . with urban pigs increasingly common , alderman john lemar has enacted legislation that would forbid residences to raise up to six hens .
The Morgans have lived near Yale University since the 1950s.