Covenent law I never heard of banning my chickens?

I have an acre lot in the country, with several other 1 acre properties on the road. we are surrounded by farmlands on all sides.

I bought my property 6 years ago and I never was notified or signed off on any coven laws. Today one of my neighbors showed up and told me that I can't keep chickens as they are livestock. According to some coven law that is attached to the property no one can keep livestock and he has a lawsuit going on with the neighbor down the road who has goats, chickens,ducks and horses.

 Before I ordered the chickens or built the chicken house I asked at the county records office and there was no restrictions listed on the property.

I just finished my coop and my chickens were shipped today!

 How can I be held to a property law I was never notified of at the time of buying the property?

I'm in Crittenden county, Arkansas.

I bought it from the owner of the development who never said a thing about a coven law.

What can I do?

Edited to clarify coven law means covenent law.

Its a Restricted Covenets of the subdivision. I was just now handed a copy of it. Apparently the owner wrote all these up himself but didn't bother to disclose this when I bought the place.

The neighbor who gave me the restrictive covenants paper is sueing another neighbor who has many chickens, ducks, goats and now two horses on a one acre lot. The smell and flies from all the animals make it difficult for neighbor 1 to enjoy his yard. He just now noticed the coop I am building and came down to tell me not to buy chickens.  (Too late)

Neighbor 1 is joined by the development owner in the lawsuit against the livestock owner. I can understand his point of view as that is too many animals on such a small piece of land.

The real estate covenants state no fowl or livestock, but allow domestic dogs cats and pet birds.

Apparently my bees and beta fish are not allowed also.

The folks on the other side of the suite are not folks I want to be involved with.  

Well after researching on the internet were to look, I went back over the title insurance pages. I found a notation listing the book and page number of the restrictions buried in a paragraph of legalese.

So even though the doument itself was never included in the sale documents, the note referring to it was.

I even checked at the county clerk's office prior to ordering the chickens, but they didn't bother to tell me about any restrictions on the property either.

I cannot tell you how upset I am.

I don't know wether to wait and see how the lawsuit turn out or just start looking for new homes for the birds.

Thanks for the help though.

Thank you for you help Sonorian Silkies

I spent a bit of time on the phone today and found out that Arkansas State law supports the developers not the purchasers.

Unfortunately the covenants were in effect 4 years before I bought the property. They were in a public record and that record was mentioned in the title insurance, though buried in a mess of legalese that you'd have to be a lawyer to really understand. I think the reason the clerk couldn’t find any restrictions the first time was because I gave her the subdivision and plat number. While said restrictions are often noted or referred to on plat maps they aren’t always there. These weren’t. Instead they are listed in a separate set of books where you need to know the book and page number to find them. In other words you already have to know they exist and where they are in order to locate them.

So its my fault for not catching the phrase restrictions in the title insurance and making them come up with said restrictions before I signed. I would have never bought the property had I known of the restrictions beforehand.

Apparently all the other purchasers bought from the original developer and were given a copy. I didn’t get a copy when I bought my property from the developer's nephew, (the lawyer who is representing the developer’s widow and neighbor 1 in the suit against the animal owning neighbor) .

There is no way to change the covenants as long as the developer holds 51% of the property.  She or her heirs have complete control. Since the other half of the “subdivision”  has not sold a single lot  in over 10 years and there are 5 lots here that are still in the developer's hands I don’t see that happening any time soon.  I only own one lot, out of a group of 13 lots. Sorry for the confusion.

The HOA is only on paper. There are no amenities, fees, meetings, votes, etc.. The only thing I find out is one of the developer’s family is listed as Reg. Agent and “LLC Member information is now confidential per Act 865 of 2007”
 In order to get someone to comply with the restrictions a Homeowner has to sue another homeowner, paying his or her own money to bring the case to court.