Meet this Sunday to encourage pro-chicken ordinances in Rhode Island

hello everyone, i am new to the forum and new to having chicken as an adult. I grew up around chickens and had chickens as a child and was intending on reintroducing chickens to an addition to my pigeon coop which housed the chickens i grew up around as a child. I thought nothing of getting chickens because of the coop being void of chickens for such a short period of time it just seemed natural to have them. Through a conversation i was having with my brother in regards to how many i should get, he asked what the ordinance allowed and so on, which hadn't occurred to me even existed to me. After reading and realizing the actual situation that existed, i am trying to find out how myself and others that i know can get involved to change such laws. I live in east providence in my vavoo and vavaws(grandparents) old house and just like my pigeons i figured i was just caring on a tradition. I have cool neighbors who have pigeons and chickens and such, but would still like to get involved. thank u

I know this thread is quite old but I'm looking for some help. I'm moving to Warwick soon and was planning on getting chickens this spring, however I cannot find out exactly what the ordinance allows for. Does anyone know if chickens are okay in Warwick, RI or if there are specific limitations? 

Thanks so much!

2/21/12   I live in Warwick on almost an acre of land.  I was wondering what the law is with chickens as well??  

WHAT I've heard is, if you have chickens, you need a hen.  But neighbors aren't too cool w/ a hen at 5:30am..... 

I looked on cityofwarwick.gov and got no information.

Any info would be great.  Thanks

http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/TITLE2/2-23/INDEX.HTM  Here is a link to the RI Right to Farm Act.  You do not need a rooster to have eggs, you do need hens (which are not the chickens that crow).  Hens can be loud though, especially right after they lay an egg.

Good luck!

I'm an old URI grad, from the ag college there. It was so long ago, that there were cow barns behind my dorm, and the dean of residential life gave me permission to bring my bantam rooster and hen and their little coop with me, and keep them in one of the barns.

Rhode Island has, alas, gone down another road since then. Far more ordinances as areas that were rural (and Kingston was SUPER rural when I was at URI in the mid-late 1970s) are now built up with housing developments and home-owner association covenants. Sigh. But there is so much fantastic agricultural tradition and history in RI, that backyard poultry is a must.

To the person who mentioned that hens can be loud, yes that's true. But if you coop them at night and don't let them outside till the first lawnmower starts roaring, or the neighborhood kids and dogs start running around and making noise, and car alarms go off ... you get the idea... then your chickens will not be the center of attention even if they do get a little buck-acky. As for the noise when laying, hens usually prefer to lay in their nesting boxes, and if you put those in the coop or a sturdy wooden shed or small barn, it will muffle the sound very well.

I live on a quiet side street in a small city, and the houses are close together. But I have a flock of 25-30 bantams - hens and cocks - and some standard hens, plus ducks and geese, and my neighbors have never had an issue. I keep the place clean and odor-free, and the poultry all go in their barn at dusk and stay there till the neighborhood is generating its own noise the next day. And once the flock gets into their routine, I've found that they settle down and make very little noise after the first five or 10 minutes outside. Especially if I throw out some scratch grain to distract them.