I live on a 1/5th of an acre and am allowed 4 chickens. I always have a dozen or more. No one complains about them luckily. However, they do complain about my goats. Even though we live in a rural, unincorporated area of the county they want us to have 2 acres for 2 mini goats. We could have 4 horses on 1/2 an acre, but need 2 acres for goats and lots of chickens. We sold our house and tried to comply, but land in CA is so expensive we couldn't do it. So we bought a house on a corner and did the best we could with putting the coop and goat house as far from everyone as possible.
When I got sited again, I went to court and fought it. The county never showed up to prove their case so I won by default. I would say do some research on other cities ordinances and then make a case and fight it. In Brooklyn, NY for instance, you can have as many chickens as you will clean up after. So many cities have stupid anti chicken and goat laws. It is up to us to change them I guess. I know more and more people in my area are keeping illegal chickens. If enough of us do it, then we will have a stronger case. Lady up the street from me is building a coop as we speak and I am aiding her in her illegal chicken quest. Yeah me! I have no problem with going to a supervisor's meeting and bringing as many chicken people with me as I can and making a case for chickens. I told him this at our last meeting. Haven't hear a peep since then. He hasn't changed the ordinance, but they are bothering me either. But if they do I will fight!
