She noted that the nuisances section also does not allow a “cattle yard, hog pen, fowl yard or house, cesspool, privy vault; nor any cattle, hogs or other live stock or live poultry.”

“These are 101-year-old rules,” she said, adding that she decided to order the chickens after seeing Martha Stewart talk about them on television. She even bought the birds from the website that Ms. Stewart recommended, Mypetchicken.com.

Mitchell Cohen, the president of the Forest Hills Gardens Corporation, said the regulations detailed in the homeowners’ covenant and restrictions are meant “to protect the whole community” and an “amazing document that has held the test of time.”

The covenant “is what has kept the Forest Hills Gardens the oasis it is today,” he said. “I’m sorry Mrs. Saye is upset by our letter, but to keep the Forest Hills Gardens the community it is, everyone must look beyond themselves and follow the rules we all agreed to follow.” The corporation has not said what, if any, action it might take to force Ms. Saye to evict her chickens. For now, she said, her chickens are staying.

The collision of a modern trend with the old laws has set tongues clucking in this staid neighborhood, but Ms. Saye said she has heard nothing but positive feedback from neighbors and no complaints about any odor, noise or unsightliness. They also praise her willingness to give away eggs, she said, as she sat in the sprawling Tudor house where she grew up and still lives on Greenway North, a scenic, winding way through this neighborhood, which is privately owned but open to traffic.