Concord NH passes chicken law

[geoff40]

http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/298032/chickens-can-flock-to-the-city?CSAuthResp=1323788776%3Auu5ncfpcipv6jonjofr35pvra4%3ACSUserId%7CCSGroupId%3Aapproved%3A2C3AC2E577DE13C9D5771715130FD64F&CSUserId=94&CSGroupId=1

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20111214/NEWS01/712149971


The Concord city council is not known for their friendliness toward this sort of thing, so I am somewhat surprised. The proposed/shot down $25 coop "fee" is more like their usual action, and I am surprised this was shot down frankly.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
Good if you want chickens; bad if you have or wanted pet ducks.

 

[onthespot]

Wow, to me the amazing story is your town has $1.34 million surplus this year. Way to GO!!! And, congrats on the chicken zoning, even if it is temporary.

 

[tp70731]

congrats!

 

[shocksystems]

Wow, nice to see common sense scoring a win.

Cheers!

Jim

 

[Derry Chooks]

This was definitely a big win. We have another opportunity to make things better in NH - repealing the law (NH RSA 437:15) that doesn't allow anyone to buy less than 12 chicks that are under 4 weeks old. The new Concord law definitely highlights this point - in order to have 5 chickens people would have to buy older birds and miss out on the fun and learning that come with raising them from chicks.

In our case, lowering the minimum buy would help us to better stage our layers and would also help us if we want to get breeds that come into the store on different days. The way it works right now, you can't tell the store you are buying a dozen chickens, but want to get 6 buffs today and wait to get the 6 americaunas when they come in tomorrow. Stores have been cited for this in the past, so the law is causing real harm.

The bill doesn't really deal with mail order chicks, as the warmth needs of the chickens are the driving factor for minimum orders. There are a lot of places to buy chickens in New Hampshire, so the real thrust of the bill is in-person sales. That also means that the person selling the chicks still has the right to refuse the sale if they aren't comfortable that the chicks will be raised well.

The bill to repeal this is HB 1231, and there is going to be a hearing at the State House on Thursday January 26th. If you live in NH please let me know if you are interested in speaking to the committee - the way it works here is that if the committee is convinced that there is a real interest and need a bill will generally move on to the full house with the committee's recommendation. If they don't think there is interest or that it is a bad bill, it can die in committee.

I can be reached at skydive009 @ yah oo .com