Recent content by Lurch77

You're welcome. We live in a small city that, with my efforts, is only now passing an ordinance to allow chickens (shhh, mine are undocumented immigrants at the moment). If many of the people that are not so sure about having a small backyard flock could see how fun and entertaining chickens can...

Today I threw a couple pieces of rotting log in the run for the chickens to play on and pull apart for the bugs inside. They loved it. They were so happy and making the most soothing sounds as I sat watching. So I figured I would get a video. But as soon as they saw the camera that was it. They...

You never wore your boyfriend/girlfriend's class ring? :D

Unless you have a reason for not wanting to interact too much, I would start doing it more. The more interaction you have with the chicks, they friendlier they will likely be. Our chicks were gently handled many times a day, every day, and they are almost like lap dogs now that they are adults...

Oops, missed this thread earlier. Here is our first egg. Found it this morning. And we got a second egg just a short while ago. Our five ISA Browns were bought as couple day old chicks, so it was really exciting to see them grow to this point.

edit: Deleted this and added it to the "First Egg" thread already in place in this forum.

Hardware cloth is certainly the way to go. But yes, it is expensive. If you can't justify that, here is another good option. Make the run and the top out of welded 2x4" fencing. This is much cheaper to purchase, and is incredibly more strong than any hex type poultry wire. Then use hardware...

There are 12" in a foot. So take your inch measurements and divide them by 12. Your coop: 155" / 12 = 12.9 feet, which we will round up to 13 feet for easier math. 48" / 12 = 4 feet. To get square footage, just multiply your width and depth. Your coop is 13' x 4' = 52 square feet. Your...

I agree that limiting ownership based on property size is dumb. For a typical city, saying you need to have 3 acres, or even 1 acre, eliminates nearly everyone within city limits. They might as well tell everyone no chickens allowed, period. Why don't they restrict dog ownership based on lot...

I am on the agenda to speak with the City of Oconto council this Tuesday, April 8th, about changing the ordinance to allow backyard chickens. I have done a ton of research, and all the council members have a copy of it. I have been able to talk to a few of them face to face, and of those the...

Do as much research as you can on your own. Investigate what the other areas have for ordinances and how they have worked so far. Get names of people you talk to. Record everything they say, including if they have had any complaints, how long the law has been there, etc. Also do a web search...

Generally, if what you have right now is legal, they would be grandfathered in. They can and often do add stipulations, though. Such as you may not be allowed to add more animals. Or you might not be allowed to replace any animals that die with new ones. Those type of decisions will come down to...

Grandfathering means that if they rezone where you live, or change an ordinance, as long as you lived there before the changes, they may not make you follow the new rules. For example let's say you have 30 chickens in your agricultural zone property right now. But the city annexes your property...

The rule of thumb is 4 square feet per bird minimum, if they have access to an outdoor run. If there is no outdoor run you should aim closer to 10 square feet per bird. This larger number is also better if you live in a very cold northern climate where there are days or weeks that they will need...

I'm doing something similar. We have an 8x12' garden shed that is also used for things like the lawn mower and garden tools, etc. The shed had a waist level shelf across the inside back wall that was the width of the shed (8') and 2' deep. I removed that and replaced it with a 4' deep shelf...