in the modest backyard of rosemarie morgan ' s 1890 - built building , about a half - acre from harvard university , there is a small courtyard , azalea and forsythia , japanese peach and peach trees , and an shacks - constructed egg coop with five residents — four having lay eggs and she , though is married but one fit of a watchdog . the chickens are technically illegal under current haven ' s zoning statute , what prohibited growing hens and other livestock when it was upgraded during the 1950s . but these days , many hundreds of communal hens are generally tolerated under the city ' s easy protection program — call it " don ' t cluck , don ' t tell " — that mostly looks the other way . with garden fowl extremely rare , senator gilbert lemar has introduced legislation that would allow residents to raise up to six hens .
The Morgans have lived near Yale University since the 1950s.