Beacon, NY -- Watch out Chicken Owners!

[gjj210]

Hello,

Just giving you a head's-up that the City Council is looking to significantly curtail the right to keep chickens in Beacon. A draft bill includes the following:
-Limit of 5 chickens
-Permit required (don't know how much $$$ it will cost)
-Only houses zoned for single family can keep chickens
-No roosters
-No selling of eggs
-Run requires 8 foot fencing
-5 feet from property line
-No electricity in coop
-Other issues as well...
Best of all, the punishment is a fine or 15 DAYS JAIL!!
If you don't agree with this, contact your local ward council member, the two at-large members and the mayor. And I have been told there will be a public hearing for this issue on October 21. Email me directly if you want a copy of the draft ordinance.

--Greg

 

[mattclifton]

Hey Greg

Would you mind sending me a copy of the bill? I'd be interested in seeing the details.

I can't imagine the permit would be more than that for a dog ($15, I think). I have 4 hens but thought there was already a 5-chicken limit. Do you know what it currently is?

I don't quite understand "8 foot fencing" for the run - 8 feet high?! I have a 6-foot high locked, roofed enclosure for night-time but let my chickens out into the (4-foot) fenced yard by day - I hope this remains permissible.

thanks

Matt

 

[Karen1964]

I don't see what the fuss is. Frankly, Beacon is a city. Most people barely have a tenth of an acre for a yard, so the idea of having chickens is beyond me! Who wants more than 5 anyway? That's 5 eggs a day!

Permits in Beacon are cheap. Can't imagine it being more than a one time $10 or $20 fee. The permit thing is more likely a "registration" so they know who is keeping fowl.

My neighbor has birds and they stink. He doesn't take care of them at all! I hope the new ordinance can do something to eliminate people owning birds that don't take care of them. So unfair to the neighbors!!!

The 8 foot hit fence is probably to eliminate them coming into neighbors yards. I have a friend across town that is constantly chasing chickens out of her yard. Honestly, I'd rather chase them out than have to smell them!

Good luck - Karen

 

[mattclifton]

Thanks for your thoughts, Karen. It sounds like from what you say, it is just a case of one or two bad neighbors, who should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis or existing nuisance laws, without adding undue burden on the rest of us who take good care of our birds. I wonder if the person who proposed the 8-foot fence has actually ever seen a chicken. Perhaps they're thinking of ostrich - much larger.

There should certainly be consequences for any pet owner, dog, cat, chicken or otherwise, who doesn't clean up after their pet or allows dangerous or unsanitary conditions, endangering the general health. But again, the vast majority understand this.

Great to meet fellow Beacon chicken keepers!

Matt

 

[Mamaganoush]

Karen,
I live in raleigh,NC, which is a fair sized city. We have an annual "tour d'coop" with many coops in the less suburban parts of the city, and I would say at least half a dozen flocks within a four block radius of our house. My husband put up a privacy fence 6 feet high the length of the coop and run (about 12 feet long altogether), with the coop about one foot from the property line. Partly to be kind to our neightpbors, and partly to keep our neighbors' dogs from barking their fool heads off at our chickens. Six feet is plenty tall, and the chickens are nowhere near as loud as the dogs. Smell less too.

Five eggs a day -- well, if you have a big family, that is fine. Or perhaps people like to share eggs.

As the other poster suggested, there are bad eggs (sorry, couldn't resist!) with all sorts of pets. Chickens are not inherently noisier, smellier, or less neighborly a pet than dogs or cats. Really, a dog barking all day, running through neighbors yards, and doing its biz in the flower beds is equally as annoying, and a lot more common than chickens.

ETA, I'm not down on dogs, in fact like dogs a lot, just using them as an obvious example.