Two chickens, a mini farm and Manhattan apartment all for $1.2m

Here’s how to live in the middle of one of the world’s biggest cities while maintaining a taste of rustic living as if you were down on the farm.

Two chicken each lay an egg a day are part and parcel of a lot in Manhattan being sold for $1.2m Image by Steven Lilley / CC BY 2.0

For a cool $1.2 million you can have a one-bedroom apartment on the Manhattan Upper West side of New York with two chickens – Fricassee and Marsala – as well as the run of a tiny farm.

It may not be country living as we know it, but the hens lay an egg each every day to supply some of the apartment’s food needs. Current owner Matt Trust also uses the two-storey terrace ‘farm’ area to feed his flock or top up their water supply.

The New York Daily News reports that Trust and his husband – Manhattan’s version of urban farmers – also harvest a number of fruits and vegetables on the small penthouse pad – from tomatoes to peppers, basil and potatoes.

Trust himself jokes that he is the “country mouse who married the city mouse” and what they came up with is the alternative to a farm upstate.

However the couple are now selling up and hope to begin a search to buy a real farm outside of the city. They plan to sell their apartment and will leave the chickens and the custom build coop to the right buyer as part of the sale.