I am just wondering how common this is. I live in Jackson county, Oregon and our county-wide livestock laws assign fractions of acres to 'farm' animals and will not allow you to go over the number of acres you have... unless you have 2 or more acres and then, I guess, anything goes.
For example, 20 chickens make up 1 acre, and so do 3 goats. I am buying a 1.2 acre plot and cannot move my 16 chickens there with me AND get a goat because if even one hen hatches one chick, I will be over my limit.
I understand the reasonable limitation of livestock. I really do. But why do goats and chickens count against eachother when they can so easily co-habitate? I really just want ONE goat (and a few more chickens, but don't we all!) and I know lots of people keep grazers and chickens together.
It just seems like there is so much they aren't allowing for such as the size of the chickens and the size of the area actually available to the chickens. Banties should take less space than standards, and if you are going to have a chicken-per-acre limit, shouldn't it be a floorspace thing? If I let my chickens roam over a whole acre, fine. But if I have an acre of land but fence them into 1/8th, or 1/10th, well to me, that means less chickens allowed on the same plot of land.
Am I just being to logical about this? I plan to let the chickens have at least 1/2 acre (we have not decided how many fences we are taking out or moving, nor have we measured the pasture area) and that seems to me plenty of space for 16 chickens and a goat. Even when we had 10 more chickens, they barely roamed 3/4 of the acre we lived on before. A few were adventurous, but most stayed pretty close to the coop/food shed.
so how do other places regulate chicken-keeping?
For example, 20 chickens make up 1 acre, and so do 3 goats. I am buying a 1.2 acre plot and cannot move my 16 chickens there with me AND get a goat because if even one hen hatches one chick, I will be over my limit.
I understand the reasonable limitation of livestock. I really do. But why do goats and chickens count against eachother when they can so easily co-habitate? I really just want ONE goat (and a few more chickens, but don't we all!) and I know lots of people keep grazers and chickens together.
It just seems like there is so much they aren't allowing for such as the size of the chickens and the size of the area actually available to the chickens. Banties should take less space than standards, and if you are going to have a chicken-per-acre limit, shouldn't it be a floorspace thing? If I let my chickens roam over a whole acre, fine. But if I have an acre of land but fence them into 1/8th, or 1/10th, well to me, that means less chickens allowed on the same plot of land.
Am I just being to logical about this? I plan to let the chickens have at least 1/2 acre (we have not decided how many fences we are taking out or moving, nor have we measured the pasture area) and that seems to me plenty of space for 16 chickens and a goat. Even when we had 10 more chickens, they barely roamed 3/4 of the acre we lived on before. A few were adventurous, but most stayed pretty close to the coop/food shed.
so how do other places regulate chicken-keeping?
