Got illegal chickens?

[Knittycat]

 

[timowaltz]

I agree

 

[Moabite]

My neighbors are cool about chickens, even my arch-enemy neighbor next door. Good thing too, 'cause Muffy the EE thinks she's an opera singer! Her egg song can be heard a block away. Chickens are legal here with a 2 year permit, as long as there are no complaints.

 

[AnaD]

Wowwie! After reading so many pessimistic attitudes about neighbors I am quite happy to live in the town I am in. We are allowed 6 hens no roos, but regularly I have come across coops with more then six hens (you can see the coops from the sidewalk). At the park with my daughter I could hear a rooster crowing and overheard some parents saying how cool it was to hear a rooster right in the middle of town. We even have a flock of turkeys that travel around town.
I hope that you find out that your neighbors will be cool with your little flock. You have gotten some great ideas from so many people here. GOOD LUCK!

Turkeys as seen from the car.

 

[ninjascrub69]

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I hope it works out for him

 

[Mom 2em All]

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hahahahahahAAA!!! Thats even better than my African Ground parrots!!! love it!

 

[twentynine]

While a lot of these replies have been light hearted and funny their is an underlying truth that you can not ignore.

That is---

Being aware of the law/ordenance/code that prohibits chickens in your yard and home. That puts you in the wrong if you try to raise chickens. Your nieghbors would have every right to complain. Doesn't matter about he noise of barking dogs, screaming kids or anything else you care to compare.

In the end, if you are restricted from owning chickens in your present living arrangements, it's best to follow the law/code/covenant. Work to get it changed.

Right here on BYC we have had a few members that have had very extensive and expensive fights to save their chickens. In my opinion the ultimate heart ache is not worth it.

 

[Bubbles_erin]

I dont know if mine are illegal or not. I checked the city ordinances, but we are unincorporated, I couldnt find what the county had to say. So I went forward. I talked with neighbors first, and no one had an issue with it. I have known a lot of the neighbors since I was a kid, so that makes it pretty easy going around here. The one neighbor, the one right next to me, is someone that a lot of others around have issues with. He and I have never had any open issues (though his dogs are annoying, so were my roosters before we slaughtered and more recently the turkeys that are ready to mate). We will be moving to a rural area surrounded by farm land, so that is a lot easier to figure out the animal situation. It just depends on your relationship with neighbors and making it as low key as possible. If they have kids, involve them with the birds. My neighbor accross the street (known since I was a kid) is my chicken babysitter sometimes. My neighbor next door (yes the dog one) has yelled for me when stray dogs made it into my backyard and massacered half my flock. Good luck...

 

[Bubbles_erin]

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Whoa!! Thats a lot of turkeys!! I could never let my turkeys in the front yard, they would run right infront of the first car to drive by...my little RIRs on the other hand, are quite inteligent little ladies. It must be something to see me trying to chase the turkeys into their pen with my ten chickens running behind me....ahahahhaha

 

[DenverBird]

I met some neighbors with hens and decided to just go for it. Later I found the place in the city code that says I can have up to a 400 square foot chicken coop in my back yard (that's 20' x 20'!!!) as long as waste and nuisance aren't issues. We can butcher meaties as long as it doesn't bother the neighbors or create a health hazard.

My brother who's in a town that doesn't allow chickens just calls them pets. Being an Alabama grad, I like the "Auburn UniversityTherapy Animal Study In Progress" sign!

As for quiet breeds, I can say that all the ones I've got listed below are fairly quiet and are all considered to be "docile." We had three RIRs at first but they were very loud all day long and aggressive to pullets we tried to put in with them. The RIRs wound up in freezer camp and now we've got a great flock that hardly makes any noise more than a little low squawking and occasional egg songs.

Good luck,

-DB