How did you get caught?

[H04]

I was curious on those that have been caught having "outlaws" HENS. Was it the noise, a neighbor seeing it? We are on .17 property BUT the two barred rocks would be behind a 6ft privacy fence cooped with we are not home


Thanks

 

[Munchies]

Lucky for us we had all are permits by the time we got caught.

We were selling our eggs and babies at the farmer's market downtown, the head of our farmers market association didn't like the fact that people were spending money on our birds and not her broccoli and cabbage. She called the health department on us for two weeks in a row and when she finally figured out she couldn't get anyone else to shut us down, she and her relatives who make up the associations board have a "special meeting" and decided we couldn't sell our birds at their market. We I made so much a fuss about it that the local newspaper interviewed us about our birds.

Being on the front page

... outed us to all our neighbors and we are still handing out free eggs.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Interesting story--did the Farmer's Market have rules in place when you started selling? I know that a lot of them require a booth rental fee or a % of proceeds.

I've never sold at them, but I have a friend who does--she was picky about choosing which market to sell at becuase her egg supply was somewhat limited and she didn't want to have all her proceeds go to pay those expenses--rather she wanted to partially offset the feed bill for her exhibition birds.

 

[rufus]

The idea is to not get caught. Once you realize that you are an illegal operation, as a criminal you have a lot of options the law abiding don't.

Build your coops and pens on the weekend when the compliance officers are off. Be careful about noise like hammering and nail guns.

Don't offend neighbors. Be a good guy in all other respects. They won't turn you in if they like you.

Living in the right neighborhood helps. I live next to the freeway, and you can't hear my chickens due to the constant roar of traffic.

Don't advertise that you have chickens or other forbidden livestock. I have mine behind an eight foot high wall.

Control flies and odors.

Once compliance officers catch you, they will continue to check you out. Be careful.

Good Luck,

Rufus

 

[H04]

So far neighbors on both side are ok. One i just mentioned it too and the wife told me she always had them growing up. The other on the left of us was excited about it especially when i told her we could give her some eggs sometimes ( even if that means we dont get some hee hee) We are only planning on 2-3 and while i WAS thinking of silkies i think i will go with the barred plymouths. Today we were at a farm with over 200 and the farm was QUIET other then the occasional rooster crowing or the little peeps from babies but we never heard much from the hens. Im thinking the only time they tend to make noise is freight or laying? But do all hens make noise after they have laid an egg? I do have a african grey so hopefully it will just sound like other sounds he makes lol He is in our fla room where the window is generally open most times

 

[H04]

we are also planning on constructing it under our sons treehouse and no worries about saws and such as my DH is always building something (skateboard ramp etc )

 

[crtrlovr]

Quote:
With this persistent, pervasive rain, the whole area around us (rather low-lying to start with) is like a slough. The run is now ankle deep mud in places (and no, I'm not exaggerating. It is over the tops of my shoes.

) Mud is everywhere, the stench of rotting vegetation is bad enough, but when the smell of the mud/chicken poop/henhouse cleanings that were SUPPOSED to go into a compost pile but the furious unexpected torrential rain took care of that -- washed it into all the low places, but not enough to build them up so they don't stay like sludge pits). Long story short, any ideas on controlling odor? Can I use agricultural lime in the run? (will it hurt the chickens, and will it do anything for the smell?) As soon as it dries up enough, I'm having sand trucked in. Any suggestions on what to do UNTIL then?? I'm dying here.... I know my neighbors can smell it, and I have a wonderfully nice next door neighbor I really don't want to annoy.

 

[Chicky Tocks]

crtrlovr - we were having the same problem with all of the rain and the smell of the poopy run. I went out on our first sunny day and gathered up some wheat straw and tossed it in. Also I found some mulchy pine needles (full of worms nahmy yum) and tossed that in to help soak up the puddles. That alone cut down on the smell tremendously! Today I went out and bought some stall fresh, some DE and a large bag of chips from our local feed store. I plan to put deep litter in the run. The only problem is that we're calling for more rain all week long so this will wait until that stops. But tossing in the straw and the pine needles to soak up the puddles helped so much!

 

[got2bskilled]

WOW- sounds like you all need a good chicken tractor!

 

[rufus]

Well, I finally got caught. Some young punks conducted a home invasion around the corner, and the cops were on them in no time. They ran like scalded cats.

One was hiding in my tangerine tree, and the cops zapped him with a stun gun. The chickens saw it all. And the cops saw the chickens. They never said anything about the chickens.

Knock on wood, I think I am OK.

Rufus