in the modest backyard of rosemarie morgan ' s 1890 - epoch house , about a ½ - foot from yale university , there is a tall buddha , azalea and forsythia , italian rose and plum trees , and an amish - made chickens coop with five residents — four who lay eggs and gloria , and is barren but one heck of a watchdog . the fowl are formally illegal under south haven ' s zoning statute , which prohibited raise hens and other cattle when it was restored during the 1950s . but these days , many tens of lawn hens are generally considered under the city ' s informal enforcement program — call it " don ' t cluck , don ' t kill " — that mostly looks the other way . with urban culled very popular , alderman roland lemar has introduced laws that would allow residents to raise up to sixteen hens .
The Morgans have lived near Yale University since the 1950s.