Burlington WA changed chicken restrictions right AFTER we bought our chickens and designed our coop

[bluerat]

So I was looking into this for over a year, and called them many times/read over the rules to make sure how many chickens we could have. Unlimited we were told, no roosters, cool, so we went ahead and bought our chickens (knowing it would only take us a weekend to finish the coop and we'd have plenty of time) and were starting to build the coop so it would be ready as early as possible, before we needed it.

Before continuing much further, just to make sure what we'd already confirmed many, many times, we called again, to confirm what we already had many times and were given an entirely different answer than every other time we called. We were told the limit is now five chickens and the county has to approve the coop (neither was in place before). We were tossed around with new rules and regulations and all our plans are messed up now.

So, earlier, I visited the website. No mention at all of this mysterious new law passed....until like an hour ago. http://www.ci.burlington.wa.us/imageuploads/Media-4519.pdf

So now I have to rehome a bunch of chickens and we have to totally remake our plans for a coop (for over twice as many) and I might not even be able to make enough eggs for myself because the truth is chicken eggs are my only source of protein.

I have a corn allergy. I can't eat grocery store meats/eggs (washed in corn acid, which they renamed citric acid/vinegar), I'm allergic to nuts, I'm allergic to shellfish/the corn based washes used to clean them, even things like salmon are still cleaned with a corn acid wash..... I'm allergic to soy as well. I react to most bagged beans and safe ones are very hard to come by, and grown by me. Last year slugs ate my crops out of nowhere in the middle of the night (previously there hadn't been any slugs).

I have NO food options. I am disabled and low income and the only safe eggs I could find (and only part of the year) were 4-6 bucks a dozen. They have to be non-corn non-soy fed and not washed in anything but water to work for me. This is near impossible to find.

I am so ****** off right now I can't sleep....but I have to be up tomorrow morning to talk on the phone to someone I'm having to rehome the birds I've raised for this last while to a new home. It's going to break my heart.

I haven't been able to sleep at all since I found out....or relax...I've always been an animal lover and I *really* needed the extra chickens for when production goes down in the winter. My parents were more than happy to not eat eggs during low production month's so I'd have some. Now we might not make enough for them to get any some of the time. This SUCKS.

End rant. *sigh*

 

[bluerat]

Forgot to add, if anyone has chickens in Burlington the enforcement officer will look for your house and force you to let them inspect your entire coop. If you have more than five chickens you are now a "violator".

If anyone is going to fight this, you had better do it soon. If I was healthier I'd be kicking and screaming more than I am but I'm just trying to keep my blood pressure down until they know whats wrong with my heart this last year. And sadly stressful opposing something isn't under the less stress setting I'm supposed to be having.

They said they are changing this because of a rat problem. Thing is, none of my neighbors have chickens at all. But there's rats and squirrels everywhere because the old people feed them nuts and corn. The local ordinance officers might wanna look into that....and the garbage/food and stuff our neighbors leave out. There's your real problem. I mean, seeing as until recently, I had no chickens, and they are inside currently on top of that.

Our coop design is not only rat-proof, but I actually plan on hanging out with them/monitoring and feeding them inside their coop area so no food gets on the ground of the run. I planned on this BEFORE this other stuff came up. The squirrels poop on everything they are everywhere. The old people at the retirement center who feed them only deal with the cute parts, not the poop and constant (for me highly allergenic) food waste that also attracts rats. No, that happens after they leave with the food in the evenings. *grumbles*


Edited like my first post to fix mostly grammar errors and repeated information from being upset.

 

[bluerat]

If your also in Burlington WA (or just keep chickens and would like to be involved) feel free to join.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/553516178022223/

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

If you had your coop and birds BEFORE the code was changed, you should be grandfathered in. Check the code for a "non-conforming uses" section.

 

[bluerat]

It's ironic because we stopped building the coop BECAUSE they changed the code the other day (wishing we wouldn't have checked that last time....I haven't SLEPT since I found out and the answer we got the times before was totally different than the one we got the other day/month/years when we called). The new regulation on chickens isn't even on the codes/ordinances website at all, their main page just has a pdf file. They didn't give existing chicken owners/residents any warning that I know of. I don't leave the house much though because of my problems walking so I guess I wouldn't know unless they sent us something etc but....this is still ridiculous. I guess the parts of our chicken tractor already built fall under grandfather clause but we had to redo the entire plan to make it fit their *regulation* size for sure. What a joke....our yard is so huge we have two giant sheds, like ten trees etc.....we don't lack space the chickens are going to be nowhere near neighbors on top of the fact I'm ocd about cleanliness LOL

 

[bluerat]

I guess the real problem is we have one neighbor who, even if we had one chicken, would report it. He reports every neighbor we have for everything he can pick on. His son works for the police. I can sadly guarantee we will be reported and brought out to everyones attention by him. Likely the first day he's back from his many vacations (he barely even lives here anymore he's gone so much).