Actually READ your ordinances.... Maize, KS

[PrudentPrepper]

So, here is my story about supposed ordinances in Maize Kansas...

My wife and I were going to get a backyard flock a few years back so she went to city hall and asked about the laws in our town of Maize. They said chickens were not allowed so we decided to get out of dodge and started planning our move. A few years later and we are ready to move- we decide to buy our chickens early and get a couple month head start on them so we wouldn't have to wait so long for eggs once we got to our new farm in the Ozarks. We stashed the chickens in our house hoping to not get caught. Due to some nosey neighbors, we were left a message from city code enforcement - we had been found out. Not wanting to call him back unprepared I ACTUALLY READ THE ORDIANCES MYSELF.... other than game or fighting cocks there was nothing about not having chickens at all. So I called him back, schooled him on his own ordinances and he hung up on me obviously defeated. Rule number 1 - don't take anyone's word on it. READ THE ORDINANCES YOURSELF. We could have had chickens all along. We would have still moved, but it would have been nice if we'd have started raising them years ago..

 

[HeritageGoose13]

That's pretty terrible they were planning on taking your chickens when they were perfectly legal.

 

[NachoMama]

I'm here in Maize too! I called a couple of weeks ago to see what was allowed and was told "Eight, we tend to follow Wichita on that type of thing and I believe they allow eight. But no roosters."

OK, so we built our coop and bout 3 chickens to start. Then adopted the next day because some friends of ours needed a new home for theirs due to their child starting chemo. So now I have 5. They told me that after 8 I would need a permit. So I got to thinking tonight about it this evening and decided to pull it up and see what that would entail. Well...the ordinance says 3. Great lot of good it did me to call and ask the person that should have known. I guess I will see how it goes.

 

[cassie]

I learned long ago to never take an authority's word on what the law is. Years ago when I was building a dairy barn for my goat dairy, an inspector told me to do some things that when I checked I found were illegal and he tried to forbid me from doing some things that were clearly allowed. He was not happy when I pointed out the discrepancies in the published manual of regulations governing dairy barns that, get this, he himself had given me.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Sometimes the rules are in what is not stated. You need to read the rules of construction...usually at the beginning or end. It is very common to find a statement that says that any use not specifically allowed is forbidden. Meaning that not finding anything about chickens doesn't mean they are allowed.