Neighbors Crowded Coop and run

[caligirl1996]

I live in California in a residential area. My neighbors chicken coop is 10 feet from the side of my house yet far from their house and it's pretty small and crowded. When I first moved here, they had a rooster which I complained about and they got rid of right away. I have brought to their attention through a note on their door that their chickens are close to our house, loud and smell. The smell has gotten much better but they have gone and got more small chickens. I overheard my neighbor say they have 9 "layers" and 6 bantam chickens and then something else which totals 16 chickensin a coop that's probably close to almost 100 square feet if that. 2 of the small bantam chickens are now learning to crow which is kind of funny to hear but still upsetting due to noise early in the morning.Should I call city coding on themknowing they are not up to code by any means? I find that keeping them contained in a space this small is cruel.

 

[Argus]

What does "the code" say?

 

[ChickenMammX4]

Are you wanting to call the city because the chickens are a nuisance or because you feel their space is not adequate? If it's the latter, I'd mind my own business.

 

[caligirl1996]

What does "the code" say?

Code says only 1 chicken per 100 square feet and coop has to be 20 feet from neighbors plus roosters are illegal.

 

[caligirl1996]

Are you wanting to call the city because the chickens are a nuisance or because you feel their space is not adequate? If it's the latter, I'd mind my own business.

It's because they are loud in the morning right by the bedroom.

 

[xcalibor67]

The right thing to do is: Politely ask your neighbor if moving the chicken run/coop is possible, and explain "Why". If he/she doesnt agree, call the city codes office.. I ALWAYS try to settle problems on my on 1st, but of course i live in the county of a state which has no restrictions on chickens, and of course our houses are at least 300/400 ft apart... I understand certain states, cities have codes, and they are for a reason..Perhaps if the guy wants to raise chickens, he should consider moving to an appropriate place..I see and appreciate both sides of the coin.

 

[Noaskye]

I would try a face to face conversation before anything else. A note is nice but a face to face conversation goes a long way towards conflict resolution.

 

[jeria]

100 square feet per chicken is huge! 16 chickens in a 100 square foot coop is 6.25 square feet per bird. Not bad. Plus then you add the run. You may have your numbers wrong or not understanding them. It does sound like it is too close to your house per code though. I'm making sure mine exceeds the 20 feet rule here by quite a bit. Here no roosters are allowed either, that could be very annoying especially so close to your house.

 

[ckelley]

It's probably 1/100 sq feet in the lot. Like if your lot was 13,000 sq feet you could have 130.

Maybe it's available yard space they are counting.

My city allow 8/lot. I'm in 2 lots.

 

[caligirl1996]

100 square feet per chicken is huge! 16 chickens in a 100 square foot coop is 6.25 square feet per bird. Not bad. Plus then you add the run. You may have your numbers wrong or not understanding them. It does sound like it is too close to your house per code though. I'm making sure mine exceeds the 20 feet rule here by quite a bit. Here no roosters are allowed either, that could be very annoying especially so close to your house.

100 square feet per chicken is huge! 16 chickens in a 100 square foot coop is 6.25 square feet per bird. Not bad. Plus then you add the run. You may have your numbers wrong or not understanding them. It does sound like it is too close to your house per code though. I'm making sure mine exceeds the 20 feet rule here by quite a bit. Here no roosters are allowed either, that could be very annoying especially so close to your house.

The 100 square feet includes the run and I'm not sure it's even that big, my husband says it's not. I think it's more of an issue of them being only 10 feet from our house... I can't really expect them to move the whole thing over though because it's already built and has been there since before we moved in. I think the best thing is getting rid of the roosters and scaling down on the amount of chickens. The roosters are really young and learning how to crow so it's possible that they went and got chicks and some ended up being roosters.