poll: are you legal or an outlaw?

[jimmythechicken]

legal how i own my birds but outlaw in how i pertect them

 

[gbeauvin]

I researched the law before diving in... county commissioner was useless. Animal control said all good on the zoning front, but check your HOA. Eventually the probate judge office's website was convinced to kick free a copy of the deed restrictions for the house we're renting :

No chickens for me, at least until we move.

-GB (legal, but chickenless)

 

[dsqard]

Legal on the zoning and on the HOA!! I can have a bunch more too!! Dreaming of many more next year!!

 

[chichi56788]

You can have 4 chickens here in Columbia, SC, but not in my neighbourhood! Oh well, I could care less about the neighbourhood laws and my family and I are ready to fight them if we get reported. So im defiantly an outlaw!

 

[BittyBanty]

Legal here, at least until I get bit harder by the chicken bug and go over the 15 bird limit.

( I'm already wanting a pair of black cochin bantams.)

 

[Chrisconsin]

Outlaw it would seem. The issue is starting to gain some acceptance though so I'm ready to "fight the man" if need be.

 

[Robo]

I have been hidin them good.

 

[3chicks2dogs]

Both? It is legal to have them. I have the right number and built my hen house according to specs, but found the whole process insane you have to send certified mail to your neighbors for permission) and that, combined with my neighbors both having "illegal chickens", prompted me to not PERMIT my girls. Come and get me!

 

[turkensrule]

Outlaw

 

[swordgeek]

Perfectly legal. My land straddles two towns, so I called BOTH town halls to check zoning.

OK, so I actually did that AFTER having the chickens for 4 months or so - but I sort of knew already, because we had people from both towns in our 4-H aviculture group, and both parents in one family down the road from us are state police officers.

I did ask one town official about whether roosters were allowed. (By then, we had discovered that one of our girls was a boy.) His answer was vague. Yes, they're allowed... until "there's an issue" with a neighbor. Then what? "Well, then we have to deal with the issue." OK... So I visited my closest neighbors - none of the houses being close together, mind you, and I probably couldn't pick most of these people out of a police line-up - bearing a dozen fresh eggs and a bouquet of assorted day lilies. I apologized profusely for the inconvenience of living with the noise, and they just RAVED about the crowing. They said it reminded them of growing in their village in China, and now that they heard mine, they were considering getting some chickens and ducks, because aren't they just so cuuuuute? Other neighbors' reactions ranged from "You have chickens? Really?" to "Oh! That's a rooster crowing? We had no idea what the sound was, but it doesn't bother us at all."

The closest I got to fear was one afternoon working in the front yard, and seeing two people walking on the road down below us. They got near the bottom of the driveway, and wouldn't you know it, the rooster crowed. The wind that day was right to actually hear voices. One smacked the other's arm and said, "See? I told you there was a rooster around here!" They turned around and walked home. I have no idea who they were or where they lived, but evidently, it wasn't an issue for them. They just wanted to know what it was, and where it was coming from. That was about a year ago, and nobody has squawked since. The only person who minds is the man of the house, and he's out-numbered.