Welcome New Section: Local Chicken Laws & Ordinances! - Page 9  

Hello, I am new to backyard chicken-ing and am curious about the laws in Lexington SC pertaining to my endeavor. Also looking for like minded locals to share.

Do you know if there are generally any restrictions to having a few backyard chickens in most towns. I am in a medium-size suburb north of the Golden Gate  Bridge. I want to get started and a friend has a few hens to give me. cmw.

We've designed this section for anyone that raises chickens, but especially those that want to but are restricted by local laws and ordinances.

If you have any experience or knowledge or need help with any of the following, create a new topic in this section:

  Know what your local laws are
  Experience with changing local laws
  Know of links to websites or news articles that discuss local chicken laws and ordinances

Also, if you stumble upon topics here at BYC that are in other sections that should be here, please report them so a Staff member can move them to here.

Cheers!

Chickens would be considered "Poultry"
Livestock falls under the "featherless" category : )

- Tommy

Not necessarily--you need to check your city, county and state ordinance definitions.  In some places they are listed and included as livestock; in others they are listed and considered separately.

Here are the relevant codes for the Village of Freeport.   I live in Freeport, which is within several hierarchies of government:   State: New York;  County: Nassau; Town: Hempstead; Incorporated Village: Freeport.
It's just about a 45 minute drive east of Manhattan, located on the land mass called Long Island, at the very southern tip of New York State.  The Freeport Village Code says:

CHAPTER 78 ANIMALS AND FOWL
[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Trustees of the Village of Freeport 5-9-1966 as Ch. 4 of the 1966 Code. Amendments noted where applicable.]

§ 78-9 Poultry or fowl restricted.
[Added 8-28-1967; amended 4-17-1978 by L.L. No. 9-1978]
A. It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, corporation or other entity within the Village limits to keep, harbor or maintain any live poultry or fowl, including but not limited to chickens, ducks and geese, except that not more than two poultry or fowl may be kept as household pets.
B. Notwithstanding the provisions of Subsection A hereof, it shall be unlawful for any person within the Village limits to keep, harbor or maintain any live rooster.

So each household can have two hens.   Today I wrote the following letter to the Mayor and the Village Attorney.  I haven't mailed it yet, but emailed copies to several friends, inviting them to watch the consequences unfold.  One of my friends suggested that I not send the letter, but rather I should approach the situation more stealthily.   I invite you all on BYC to tell me what you think of each tactic.   I'll hold off on mailing the letter to the Village in the hopes that I get some feedback opinions from my fellow BYC'ers.
Here's the letter, followed by the stealth suggestions.
*************************
Carolyn XXXXX
XXXXXXX Avenue  Freeport, NY 11520


March 8, 2010
XXXXXX, Mayor of Freeport
XXXXXXXX, Village Attorney
46 North Ocean Ave.
Freeport, NY 11520

Dear Mayor XXXXXX,
Dear Mr. XXXXX,

My husband and I have been living in Freeport for the past thirty-five years.   Its a wonderful community and continues to delight us with its diversity, opportunities, and promising future.

I would like one of the Village Codes changed and am writing to you today to ask what the procedure is so that I can properly apply for the change to be made.

I have had the great pleasure of keeping two hens as pets since last July, and would like a few more.

The limit of two female chickens is mandated by the Animals & Fowl section of the Freeport Village Code, chapter § 78-9.

Please advise me of the code-changing process.  The weather is warming up and Spring is the perfect season to turn my sparse twosome into a genuine flock of perhaps ten or twelve fine feathered friends.  (Hens only;  no roosters.)

The benefits of backyard chicken-keeping are many.  Theres the daily gathering of delicious eggs; the fun of watching the ladies interact;  enhancement of the vegetable gardens composted nutrients; eradication of slugs, snails and other insect pests; hands-on experience for kids and grandkids learning about responsibility and quality of life for self, family, and community.
 
Governments local and national talk-the-talk of supporting green living, reducing the carbon footprint and embracing home-grown food sources.    Keeping a small flock of backyard hens requires minimal effort and expense to actually walk-the-walk and have fun while helping to heal the earth literally in ones own backyard. 
Cordially,
/signed Carolyn XXXXX
*********************************
Stealth suggestion is to not send the above letter;  and advises me as follows:

"Carolyn: A pointy-headed bureaucrat in Freeport will respond to your letter reciting the existing ordinance with
the added statement that all citizens in Freeport must obey its laws, rules and regulations.

I don't know if you'll get a response outlining how the process for code changes works, but my suggestion
would be to attend a public hearing in which some group of Freeport citizens is presenting a petition
for an exception to or exemption from existing codes for cogent and compelling reasons.

Exceptions and exemptions are much easier to get and are almost routinely granted for people who want to
add an addition to their home for aging parents, or build closer to the property line than the code
permits, or erect a flagpole on their property, a swimming pool for rehabilitation purposes, etc.

After all, you're not trying to pass a law that permits everybody in Freeport to keep a dozen hens
-- you just want Carolyn XXXX to be able to do so.

Once you attend such public hearings and see how things unfold, collar the presenting group(s)
and find out how they did it and the steps taken. Almost invariably they will have legal
representation by a zoning attorney to guide them through the petition process.

One element of that process will be to get signed (possibly notarized) letters from every one of your
surrounding neighbors stating that it's perfectly fine with them for you maintain such
a menagerie. Since they will have such veto power -- one "no" will kill the deal -- that
what should absolutely be done is for you to invite them en masse to a lovely barbeque or
dinner, showing off your hens and henhouse and emphasizing the lack of noise, odor,
unsightliness, or dangers of any kind (like psittacosis).

Hope I've given you thought, and provided the beginnings of a strategy plan."
****************************************
Thing is though, I'd really love it if everyone in Freeport could have a bunch of egg-laying chickens.  I think it makes the Village even more interesting and uniquely modern and avant garde and grass-roots savvy.  Also we have a large immigrant population struggling to make ends meet and it would be a boon to have fresh eggs at their back door every day.  I might even suggest being a chicken-keeping resource for the Village if they'd like to encourage the trend.  I'd love to run workshops or be a liason for newbies and show them how to join BYC.com and find the answers they need there.  Still, I don't want to shoot myself in the foot here.  If being up front and open (i.e. sending the letter), I get a knee-jerk reflex response of months of months of enduring Village Hall meetings, and writing petitions and gathering signatures and creating a support dossier of documents attesting to the health and safety of chicken-keeping in other states, counties and villages, blah, blah, blah, maybe it really would be better to go breast my cards and go the stealth route as outlined above and just aim for a variance for just my household.

I'm not a very stealthy person though;  my family jokes that the only thing I could ever do for Machiavelli is make him a sandwich!

So.... what do you BYC's think about all this?

-Carolyn (humom to HennyPenny and ChickenLittle