chicken city ordinance

[chicksdigme]

does anyone know how to find out how many chickens your city or town will allow??

 

[TreyClark281]

wondering the same thing.

 

[lurky]

For chickens in my area i had to call the board of health. I called the town hall and that is where they directed me. The BOH hardly knew anything. I dont know why i even asked though.......I do what i want anyway. I already broke all the rules.......no roo's....i got a roo........limit of 10.....i am going on 16

So dont waste your time if your like me

 

[SeaChick]

Many towns have their ordinances posted on the web. Find your towns web site and hunt around there (it's often buried deep in the site), or call City hall to see if it's posted. Then use the search feature to look for the following words, Chickens, Roosters, Fowl, Poultry, Livestock, Pets, Animals.

Often there will be two seperate places you'll need to look at. In the "land use" area you might find information and also on the "animals" area. You'll need to look both places, since some parts might be restricting placement and construction of the coop and some are about how many chickens you can have, restrictions on roosters -if any-, and nuisance requirements.

Sometimes chickens are not directly mentioned and you'll have to read the language VERY carefully to see if their definition of "pets" or "livestock" more closely fits the situation. Read the "definitions" area. If chickens aren't directly mentioned as livestock you *might* be able to claim them as pets and use those restrictions.

Good luck. Our towns ordinances forbids chickens and we are currently working to change that: http://www.SoPoChickens.org

 

[V Chic Chick]

www.municode.com

 

[rwcmick]

more city codes

http://municipalcodes.lexisnexis.com/

 

[LindaN]

I had good luck just using Google to search out my city's code. I live in Chicago so my search words were:

Chicago municipal code

Worked like a charm.

The actual location of in the municipal code may be kind of tricky. SeaChick's suggestion to search within the code for certain terms is your best option.

Thank goodness Chicago allows chickens, and even has no limitations on number. I'm only planning on getting 3 hens, and have alerted the nearby neighbors so I don't think I'll have any problems.

Interestingly, it is illegal to raise pigeons in a residential zone in Chicago. Guess there were a few pigeon fanciers who ticked off their neighbors...