hoping to have chickens! Help!

[BigECarter]

I suggest talking to your neighbors first. If you have a coop design in mind, maybe bring some pictures so that they have a better idea of what you are planning to build.

Do you have any feel for how easy your township is to work with? My county is terrible - the only way for me to have chickens is to ignore the ordinance. I have two acres with no immediate neighbors, so I am comfortable that I can get away with it. If any of your neighbors don't like the idea of chickens then your best hope is getting your township to add an option for smaller acreage - 6 hens, no roosters.

Good luck.

 

[rbynnbird]

Thanks. The township is fairly easy to work with except the lack of response which has been driving me nuts! we had to work with them a LOT while working on our house but that was all building code stuff and not related to zoning or outdoor stuff. They can get very particular about the way things are done (i guess they have nothing better to do?!?) they also went door to door one year asking if we had dogs and sent us the paperwork for licensing not even a year after we moved in and only a month before the next fee was due...Sooo basically this could go really easy once i finally talk to a human and not an answering machine OR it could be a huge fight that could take a long time....

 

[gg706]

Wow, their ordinances are VERY exact! I have never read ordinances as such. I don't know what to advise you to do...there could be good and bad on both sides. I think I would also speak to the neighbors first. If they have a problem with it I don't think the town would issue a variance anyway. So I guess I would start there. I would be tempted to contact my neighbors ajoining my property and see if they would sell a half acre or whatever to get you the land you need. It would probably be cheaper than moving.

 

[bj taylor]

do you have a bordering neighbor friendly enough who would enter an agreement w/you to lease "virtual" space from them (.25 acres)? they could lease it to you in exchange for eggs. no fences come down. you don't use their land for anything, it just gives your chickens .25 virtual acres to pretend to use. would that be legal?
i know that sounds kinda odd, but just trying to think outside the box so you can have your chickens.
since the city is so particular, i would be uneasy about ignoring them. it would be awful to get your chickens then have to give them up and get a big fat fine.

 

[rbynnbird]

That sounds like an interesting proposition. I do have a neighbors that i am friendly with, we already joke about the encroachment on their property from our porch (grandfathered in). I have thought about "sharing" our chickens with them, between the two of us i think we have over 3 acres. I am wondering how that would work, it feels kinda like usurping the system

. maybe i will bring it up next time our kids play together!