Anyone keeping chickens secret from a HomeOwners Association?

[guesswhatchickenbutt]

I live in an area of the county where all sorts of livestock are legal - cows, goats, chickens, etc., but our homeowners association says horses are the only non-household pet they'll accept in our subdivision. It specifically says no poultry of any kind. My HOA is like most - full of stuffy angry people who just want to make other people's lives miserable. We have no intentions of ever moving from this neighborhood.

I see all these other chicken owners on this forum who are fighting anti-chicken laws and here I am in a pro-chicken part of town with an anti-chicken HOA. I'm getting my first chicks in the 1st week of April and we have a coop already built that says "Rabbits" on it in case anyone peeks over our fence...LOL...we hope it'll throw them.

Everything I've read about getting chickens says to talk to your neighbors first - well since I have to hide this from the HOA, the less people that know about my covert coop, the better. My neighbors on one side actually had chickens, but they got caught (I assume). The don't speak English and one day the hens disappeared

. They don't have a large privacy fence like we do so I think that's why they got caught. (I'm only assuming they got caught).

Anyone else have this situation? Where they're hiding chickens from a HOA? We have almost 2 acres with 6-foot privacy fencing around the whole thing so I'm hoping we can pull this off!!

Any advice for me? I need quiet birds that aren't going to fly into a neighbors yard so I hope I've picked the right breeds!!! (Americauna (probably generic EEs though), BR and either RIR or buff Orpington)).

Thanks all!!

Kate

 

[coffeelady3]

Hate to break it to you, but you neighbor's are going to be able to hear your hens. They're by no means loud, but they do make noise....

 

[The Chicken Lady]

You should choose Silkies.

 

[Dar]

i guess you can try and pass them off as a rare feathered rabbit...that you rescued from a bio tech facility?...

 

[BBQJOE]

I read somewhere that chickens are a descendant of dinosaurs.

Tell them they're not chickens, but actually mutated dinosaurs, possibly related to the Pterodactyl.

 

[Rte.66_chicks]

Someone on here once told someone that those birds aren't chickens, they're rare Asian ground parrots.

 

[lunkerchicken]

I am part of a HOA. My immediate neighbors are all aware of what I am doing and are fine with it. Most of them will be at my door when the eggs start coming. As far as the HOA and the rest of the neighbors, they are not in the know. I am sure it is part of some neighborhood bylaw (that chickens are not allowed) but the covenance are loaded with a bunch of BS and at some point or another, each one of my neighbors have broken some bylaw, so they should have nothing to say.
I hate owning your own home and being told what you can or cannot do with your property - drives me nuts!

 

[aberfitch]

I will NEVER live in a HOA NEVER NEVER NEVER! I hate them. Its like a government within a government. Kinda scary. I don't think they should exist, but if you must have them then all they should have control over is how high your grass is and cleanliness. Not what animals you keep. That is just crazy. I don't know why one would even choose to live in a neighborhood with one of those.

 

[FlyWheel]

It's no wonder every online realty site will list "No HOA" in any pertinant listing, usually using all upper case lettering and sometimes followed by one or more exclamation points. I have never seen one single home posting where the presence of an HOA is praised, most times it's not even mentioned (the fact is usually hidden in a drop down menu).

I have never heard good words about such organizations and can only assume their successful rise to power cannot vary that much from Hitler's Mussolini's or Stalin's. When my SO and I went looking for a home one of the main things on our list (again, in all upper case) was no HOAs.

 

[Suzanb423]

I live in an area of the county where all sorts of livestock are legal - cows, goats, chickens, etc., but our homeowners association says horses are the only non-household pet they'll accept in our subdivision. It specifically says no poultry of any kind. My HOA is like most - full of stuffy angry people who just want to make other people's lives miserable. We have no intentions of ever moving from this neighborhood.

I see all these other chicken owners on this forum who are fighting anti-chicken laws and here I am in a pro-chicken part of town with an anti-chicken HOA. I'm getting my first chicks in the 1st week of April and we have a coop already built that says "Rabbits" on it in case anyone peeks over our fence...LOL...we hope it'll throw them.

Everything I've read about getting chickens says to talk to your neighbors first - well since I have to hide this from the HOA, the less people that know about my covert coop, the better. My neighbors on one side actually had chickens, but they got caught (I assume). The don't speak English and one day the hens disappeared

. They don't have a large privacy fence like we do so I think that's why they got caught. (I'm only assuming they got caught).

Anyone else have this situation? Where they're hiding chickens from a HOA? We have almost 2 acres with 6-foot privacy fencing around the whole thing so I'm hoping we can pull this off!!

Any advice for me? I need quiet birds that aren't going to fly into a neighbors yard so I hope I've picked the right breeds!!! (Americauna (probably generic EEs though), BR and either RIR or buff Orpington)).

Thanks all!!

Kate

We made the mistake of telling our neighbors who had no idea that we had chickens and now they are fining us. We live on almost 10 acres. We wish hadn’t said anything.