Neighbor Complaint - How to keep our Turkeys? PLEASE HELP.

Long story short, the county showed up today, saying someone complained (we have a pretty good idea who it is) and said that we'd have 30 days to "get rid or dispose" of our Turkey's. The gentleman was very nice but it sounded like there was no way that we could keep Turkeys here. We've had them for 2.5 yrs, NO ONE has ever said anything, not even the woman that I'm sure was the one complained and I'm just beyond upset right now.
So far, I found nothing useful on the web, other than how many chickens we're allowed to have in the zoning that we're in. We're zoned A-1, which is agricultural and before we ever got the Turkeys, we did some reading up of course and at the time, there was nothing that said we couldn't have them. I'm located in Northern VA.

If anyone has any idea what we could do to make sure we can keep our Turkey's, I would VERY MUCH appreciate it!

Your zoned agricultural? So farms in your county aren't allowed to grow turkeys? How exactly is the law worded?

I'd get on the phone (better yet in person) to your local zoning and regulations folks and speak with them. "Agricultural" can mean different things in different places. You need local knowledge.

I found this, which is specific to our county:

The new zoning regulations allow the keeping of chickens, pigeons, doves and other domestic fowl on any A-1 (agricultural) zoned property of at least one acre. In addition, on properties zoned SR-1, SR-3 and SR-5 (semirural) with a minimum of one acre by Special Use Permit and on parcels of 10 acres or larger.
The maximum number of fowl allowed is proportional to the lot size. One bird unit per acre is allowed for properties of 1 to less than 5 acres, three bird units per acre for properties of 5 to less than 10 acres. There is no limit on the number of bird units allowed on properties greater than 10 acres. A bird unit is:
10 chickens (though only one rooster per acre) or
6 ducks or
4 turkeys, geese or pea fowl or
1 ostrich or emu
20 pigeons, doves, or quail

So, that would mean that we are LEGALLY having these turkey's and according to our zoning, our land and everything else, we are totally fine. I will call him up again right now and point that out to him in the most charming manner I can.

How many acres is your property? You only have chickens and turkeys? How many of each do you have?

Here's is how I read this.

If you have under 5 acres, you can have only one unit. that entitles you to 10 chickens OR 4 turkeys. You could try using common sense and say that 2 turkeys and 5 chickens would also be considered one unit. The problem is when your talking about odd numbers of birds. Things that aren't easily divided.

I would send code enforcement an email asking to clarify the rules (attach said rule and a link where it was found) and asking what they would consider an acceptable number of chickens for whatever number of turkeys you would like to keep.

Calm reasonable discussion works well in most instances.

Riki

Also remember that there may be a city ordnance that trumps the county one.


I like the email route because unlike a phone call, you have a hard copy you can pull years down the road if you have a problem with a code enforcement officer. "I'm sorry for the confusion officer, but before I purchased the chickens, I E-Mailed your office and they said it was perfectly acceptable. Here is the email and their response." I then hand the nice officer the E-Mail. It has the name of the Officer I conversed with and everything that was said, right there in his hands.


Riki

Added

Even if the officer in the E-Mail is completely wrong and gave me bad information, Proving that I was responsible and having a verifiable source that I did discuss it with code enforcement might buy some leniency. Not in them turning a blind eye, because that doesn't happen. But perhaps an extension on the deadline, or a better chance of purchasing and being granted a waiver. Remember many ordinances can be disregarded by being granted a waiver.

Thank you so much for your input. I think you are right, emailing will be the better option so I have something in writing. We have I think 2 or almost 2 acres and we currently have 4 Turkey's, not counting the 4 babies that hatched a few weeks ago. We do have over 10 chickens, but the guy didn't even mention the chickens. He specifically spoke of the turkey's and made it sound like they are NOT allowed, period and we'd have to get rid of them. So, I will email him, with the links to the different things I found and will just feel him out generally before volunteering any information before I know exactly what he knows. (why volunteer the information on the chickens if he doesn't know about them yet, right? lol we can always make adjustments to this in the meantime, before they come back, if they do).

I'm still pretty angry about that neighbor doing this. I'm going to have to put on my most forced smile when I see her or else I might just lose it and throw some old eggs at her house.

Well in that case your way over the limit. 2 acres makes your limit one unit and from what your saying, your around at least three units, maybe more. Here is the problem as I see it. If you do what I suggested and ask to keep one or two turkeys, they will agree on a number of chickens. Then they WILL come by and actually count your chickens. You will end up loosing quite a few. If you really like the number of Chickens that you currently have, I would advise getting rid of all the turkeys. In this case they will come by and be focused on looking for hidden or disguised turkeys and will completely ignore your chickens.

Its a tough call. Just out of curiosity, what are you thinking of doing, numbers wise? What is your compromise?

Riki

I'd be fine with losing a few chickens. My husband LOVES his turkeys so that's really where the problem comes in. They're like his children from another wife LOL
So if I need to retire some chickens, I can most certainly do so. And he will have to make a compromise on the turkeys cause there 2 males too many and I wouldn't mind "retiring" them to the freezer.

It wasn't that we were over the limit, he came out because that *insert cuss word here* neighbor complained about turkeys specifically. In our area, they normally don't give 2 chicken poop's about how many you have or what, as long as you don't have a rooster wakign up the neighborhood every morning (we got rid of our rooster almost immediately after he started making his morning calls lol). So this complaint is based entirely on her having a fit about something else that is out of her control and she's trying to get back at us with that. Know what I mean? And that's the part that REALLY bothers me. Everyone else in our neighborhood I know for a fact has no problem with our chicken or turkeys, they actually get a kick out of it and love the fresh eggs. The one that complained was fine, up until my kids started doing better than hers in school and elsewhere. I just want to slap her.

Gobblegobblebaw, a quick search found that VA has a "Right to Farm" law. Here is a link to a PDF about it. It sounds like you can come back at them using it, but please read it to be sure! Farms zoned agricultural are supposed to be exempted from nuisance complaints. However, in my state, it says a code enforcement officer can enter a property to investigate without owners permission, so if you have a friend who can babysit your extra birds for a while, it might be a good idea to do that.

http://www.nationalaglawcenter.org/assets/righttofarm/virginia.pdf

Hope that helps you...