Help PLEASE!!!

[Radine]

Well, while my BF and I were securing tarp from the top of my shed to the back of my fence, for shade, in my newly built chicken coop/run; the zoning officer was posting a notice on my door with a stop order. Apparently, while the city of Buffalo has NO restrictions on chickens, My country town, which is filled with dairy farms, allows none. No livestock, except domestic cats and dogs. So, I thought I was going to have to get rid of my 14 babies. However, my neighbor, from a few doors down, who had bought 20 plus acres of the farm field behind us, said we could keep them there. So, my questions are, in a tractor similar To the one Patand chickens posted, can you still use a modified version of the deep liter method, for the enclosed part? Also can you use DE for liter you plan on composting??? Wont it kill the good things in your garden, too? Is there something else I could use, if so? Finally I'm probably going to have to find homes for some of the babies anyway. The encloser I'm going to try to build is going to 8 x 4 with an additional 8 x8 run. However the two birds I'm most attached to I think are roosters, so If they are, what would be the minimal amont of hens I should keep, to keep everyone happy? I'm off to work, so I wount be able to answer any ? right away, but any and all advise would be truly appreciated. Ray.

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

Oh no! I'm sorry...this makes me SO happy we live WAT out in the country!...it's nice of them to tell you you can keep them their tho. I hope it's not to hard on you to run over every day to keep up with them. Anyway...I hope you get some answers...all I have heard is if you keep two roos they WILL most likely fight. You can keep many hens to one roo...I think they said up to 20 hens! Good luck!

 

[Yanna]

Oh, ouch!

I sometimes think that smaller towns have these rules as a result of some kind of self-concept issue:

"We're not a big city but we're not HILLBILLIES, you know! No livestock or poultry in OUR respectable little town!"

I used to live in a town like that. I remember seeing how immigrants just built their coops in their basements to avoid law enforcement hassles.

I FINALLY just bought a house where poultry is legal - ironically, in the wilds of Chicagoland.

 

[Bird Hearder]

you might want to Re-consider coop and run sizes, At least an 8x8 coop. I built a 4x8 coop 4' high and it's just to SMALL, The run is 12x16. We only have 17 birds 11 of which are still in a seperate Baby run until they grow. Once you start installing Nesting Boxes, You lose space fast.

Here's a few pix so you can get an Idea on the size

 

[Radine]

I know space is limited, but it's not my property and I'm making it a tractor to minimize any grass damage. My Bf has most of the frame work done, and I'm hoping to get the rest built before I leave for work, today (mandatory 12 hours, yuck). With what's built so far, it looks huge and weights a ton, but he keeps assuring me once the preassure treated lumber dries out, it'll be much lighter. My zoning officer is being very patient, and understanding (which is more than I can say for my immediate neighbors, they are the ones who called and where trying to push for a fine, right away). The thing that really bites is this has cost me way more than building the original coop, buying the chicks, the hutch and all the insidentals combined, so far. I'm physically sick from the stress.
As to the space, I'm kinda resigned to the fact that some of the chickens will need new homes. I'm going to wait to see what they are first, since it's going to be much easeir to find homes for hens, verses the roos.
I don't know how well it'll work but I'm going to try a sort of deeplitter method in the coop part. I'm still not sure what to use for pestisides though. And if I keep the two I think are roos, and they don't fight (fat chance I know) I'm thinking of keeping 3 hens apeice for them, which will reduce my flock to 8. Just the number to max out the 4 foot per. limit.
That all being said, anyone what to swap a small farm for a 3 bedroom ranch style house with nasty nieghbors??? J/K I think.