East RIver - South Dakota

[SouthDakotan]

I'm East River. And a Newbie.

Hello everyone!

I'm in Sioux Falls, and I will be starting the chicken adventure at the end of May. We will start building our coop next week, and I am so excited!

Magpie, you said you are IN Sioux Falls? How then are you going to set up a coop? Its my understanding Sioux Falls is still resisting changing zoning to allow poultry hobbyists having backyard chickens. At least that is what I understand from Dakota Rural Action who has been lobbying to have that changed.

 

[Mrs Doolittle]

I'm in Sioux Falls also. And I'm friends with Magpie. Our coop arrives (hopefully) on Thursday. I have a makeshift dog kennel rig setup for now.

SouthDakotan, Tour De Coup is working with the city on better poultry laws. Backyard chickens are currently legal and we are working to keep it that way!! I plan on getting involved with the group.

 

[Mrs Doolittle]

The ordinance reads: "Sec. 7-8. Keeping of animals. (a) The keeping of animals on any personal land in the city shall not be on a scale creating a nuisance. This prohibition includes the domestic fowl of the order Galliformes and Gallinaceous birds (fowl-like birds), and the order Anseriformes (water fowl)."

The only stipulation is if you live in an area with a HOA. Then you need to make sure your HOA allows them.

 

[Magpie31]

Nice to see you here, Mrs Doolittle!

Wondering what I posted that tipped you off as to who I was, but we can discuss that later

 

[Mrs Doolittle]

Your mother and her ducks. LOL

 

[Mrs Doolittle]

I gave my girls some meal worms today. Boy was that a hoot! lol

 

[Mrs Doolittle]

A piece of HOT PINK yarn also made it's way into the outside pen. I have never seen chickens fight over a piece of string like that. LOL!

 

[Jeep Hound]

There sure are alot of South Dakota threads on here.

 

[SouthDakotan]

I'm in Sioux Falls also. And I'm friends with Magpie. Our coop arrives (hopefully) on Thursday. I have a makeshift dog kennel rig setup for now.

SouthDakotan, Tour De Coup is working with the city on better poultry laws. Backyard chickens are currently legal and we are working to keep it that way!! I plan on getting involved with the group.

I was wondering about the ordinance, because I ran across a Dakota Rural Action staffer and he gave me the impression the city was making it illegal to have backyard poultry, so I was quite confused when I saw posts of people in SF who had poultry. I live in Bushnell, and am a city council woman, so I'm very interested in the issue from both sides.

 

[SouthDakotan]

The ordinance reads: "Sec. 7-8. Keeping of animals. (a) The keeping of animals on any personal land in the city shall not be on a scale creating a nuisance. This prohibition includes the domestic fowl of the order Galliformes and Gallinaceous birds (fowl-like birds), and the order Anseriformes (water fowl)."

The only stipulation is if you live in an area with a HOA. Then you need to make sure your HOA allows them.

Is this how it is written? I see giant loop holes already, if it is! "not on a scale creating a nuisance."


This would mean if you had hens but no roo, you'd likely never be a nuisance if you kept them cooped since hens don't make lots of noise. If someone kept muscovy ducks and not other types, their noise wouldn't bother either, if kept in a aviary that prevented them from flying out. That which is posted could literally be viewed differently from one part of town to another, all depending on some vague idea of what is a "nuisance". When it mentions "Keeping of Animals" and says about the nuisance, to me it seems like the city hasn't really enforced this well considering the number of dogs that bark frequently and disturb neighbors. They are far more of a nuisance to people than ducks or chickens kept in coops, tractors or kept in fenced yards. Like I said, its really only the roos who are noisy. Hens can become a nuisance if people don't clean up after them or allow them to get into neighbors' yards, but if that is controlled -- just like controlling other pets, then I don't see how fowl of any kid would be an issue. In most fowl its the males calls that are the nuisance.


The only way my neighbors even realized I had fowl was that my ducks made enough noise to draw the toddlers who wanted to go see the ducks, etc. I now keep my tractors along the property line in the summer, solely so all the tots can drag their moms/dads and grandparents over to see them! LoL. All know the little ones can go visit the birds too. I'm next to the city's little park, so that property line has a "tug boat" toy trunk for the little ones. This year I will be adding a rabbit hutch too, and a bucket of carrots, etc for the kids to feed them with. Its fun watching the little ones learning how to interact with the critters and helps make my neighbors friendly to the idea that I have a "zoo" of critters on my property.

My favorite story of a resident not liking my birds was several years ago. I had a mating pair of Rouen ducks. They were free range but tended to stay in the yard, except the second year as adults, the town's intersection on the corner of main & 1st (at the edge of my property) quit draining water. ALL summer it had a "pond" in the middle of the intersection! No one could figure out why it wasn't draining properly, but we just jokingly called it Bushnell's new speed pond. Well a neighbor went to the town board whining about my ducks. I wasn't there to defend myself or my ducks; but to the surprise of everyone the bar owner (at that same intersection) was. He immediately got mad and told the busy beaver to leave those ducks alone! Told everyone that he spent a lot of time working to entice those ducks to the intersection so he could watch them frollic in the water and just be ducks and everyone had better leave them alone cause they weren't hurting no body! That ended the Duck debate. LMAO. No one complained after that about the free ranging ducks of Bushnell or the water hole in the intersection. We knew why it was all there (for the Bar's owner's pleasure) and everyone, including all the bar patrons knew they'd better not harass those ducks!