Advice on approaching permission to raise chickens in WI

[Latch3134]

I am very new to this site and I apologize if this has been addressed but I couldn't find an answer. I am about to buy 12 acres of property in a town outside of Milwaukee WI, Waukeaha County. I asked about raising chickens to the town and they said that is allowed in Agriculture districts which I am not one of, so I won't be able to. Being that I'll have 12 acres I didn't think it would be an issue. I would technically be in a Conservancy District. I've read the County laws and they allow pasturing of livestock in this district which does include poultry. However, since the town said no I don't know which one is accurate. Does the town ordinance supersede the county zoning laws? I am interested in raising less than 10 chickens and I am unsure of how to approach this further without upsetting someone in the town before I am even a resident. The data on this site states that I can have 5 chickens per acre, as long as I have more than 5 acres, in this town which gave me confidence, which is slowly fading. I would love some advice! Thank

 

[cavemanrich]

My suggestions would be to ask some neighbors and maybe at a local feed store. I kind of suspect that the Agriculture Districts, is where you would be able to raise like 1,000 chickens, or more. as a business.
Don't be afraid to upset some morons in the county government. If they are such unreasonable animals, then maybe consider purchasing property elsewhere. Or accept the conditions, and don't keep chickens.
WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and

 

[Latch3134]

My suggestions would be to ask some neighbors and maybe at a local feed store.

That is a great idea, I see a neighbor on google maps that looks like they have horses but I don't know if that's a large difference in laws. My plan is to make some friends around the area first and see what I can find out. The property is included with our home purchase which I don't think we will scrap at this point in the process. Still some great possibilities of small scale farming which might put me in a better position to get into the agriculture zone later. Keeping chickens is more in my plan for next year or year after but just trying to get educated right now. Thanks for the feedback. This township is notorious for being hard to work with on issues like this.

 

[AppleMomma65]

Hello fellow Wisconsinite! We are located in Spooner and just went through this! I'd suggest checking with your county commissioner/office. We have a home in MN and in MN, it's a city-by-city ordinance so when we got here, I assumed was city, and city research on ordinances said okay but limited number. Come to find out after one of the county commissioners visited our property to check on another permit we applied for that NO, it's a county governed ordinance (at this point, we had the 10 week old chickens, and a coop and run already built - talk about sweating bullets) and we had to apply for a chicken permit because we live in a residential area (we are sandwiched in between two lakes so "residential" is seasonal). We applied for our flock of 12 and it passed no problem-o. They did not require an AG permit.