How to remain illegal quietly. Looking for stories.

[Hatrick]

So we have yet to put our four "girls" outside, although two are looking to be of the rooster persuasion.

Talking to most people about them has been positive, however if I hear the words...
"Did you know that they're illegal in the city?" and/or "You need a rooster to have eggs."
...one more time, I'm going to lose it.
So what I want to know is, provided I want to try and change the laws around here. Tips on that would be great too.
But how do you go about keeping them under the radar when they're still illegal.

 

[Msbear]

Get rid of any roosters before they start to crow!

Keep a small, cute chicken house... make it look like a doll house or something with flower boxes... people never know my coops are for chickens

landscaping and fences will help hide.

Close neighbors get a half dozen eggs every once in a while to keep peace.

Good Luck and if you are found out, they are ornamental garden fowl and not chickens

It's funny because many people that are busted are allowed to keep their ducks!! but not the chickens because ducks are considered native to the area. ...so, getting creative may be all you need to do. Many times these laws are not strictly enforced unless you have a complainer... hence the egg giveaways.

 

[chickygirl2]

I did this for a while. I had very dense foliage around the house and fence- cedar trees put in years before. That helped. I had hens only, some muscovy ducks [quiet] . I kept everyone at night in the greenhouse. It started getting harder when I got geese lol. I was always telling them to shush lol...... We finally moved [and expanded] and now I don't need to shush anyone except Moe the peacock who thinks he is Tarzan!

 

[wannahavechickens]

I'm interested too in hearing from those who are keeping chickens illegally. This is what I plan on doing. We live on a little over a half an acre and our back yard is rather wooded. I think I can easily put a coop and small run amongst the trees and hide it fairly well. I've spoken with the neighbor that would be closest to the coop and she said she has no problems with us having chickens.

During the winter it would be more of a challenge to keep things hidden as of course that's when all the leaves are off the trees and I wouldn't have that coverage. Anyway, just hoping to hear from anyone who has successfully (although illegally) kept chickens without getting caught!

 

[Hatrick]

As well, do I start petitioning the city NOW (and give myself away as a chicken owner/lover) or do I wait until if and/or when something comes up with the city?

Does anyone have a link to a good forum post on how to start and succeed at making them legal. I would like to get all my (ahem) chicks...in a row...(

) before I have to worry about it. I'm all for egg bribery but we may only have two hens, and we like eggs.

Our coop kind of looks like a composter so that would be our initial excuse I guess, and the chickens...well, they're housepets.

 

[Msbear]

I would not expose yourself yet. I would try to get some support from the community first. See if anyone lives near you on this board by posting on the where am I where are you... and just talk with others.

Also, research articles (google) ...many have gone down this road and some have made great headway. It all depends on your city council and how "new wave" they may or may not be. But, see how others won the battle and use a similar strategy. Search on this website for older posts about law ordinances.

Also, look into your city's older laws. I've seen before where folks have found old laws that enable each person to have 4 or so hens in order to help feed the family...homesteading laws. Sometimes these old laws will trump newer ones. ..especially, if you can prove this way of eating is healthier for your family and that it would cause no harm to the community.

 

[LittleMamaBigPapa]

Look up this BYC member and she can send you the documents that her townspeople used to get the ordinances changed to allow chickens! She lives near Lawrence Kansas

ChooksChick

I am an "undercover chicken lover" also!!! Power to the Chickens!!!

 

[Boyd]

Quote:
The reason I wouldn't do this first is because you are alerting the city that you want to do this, and if you decide to go ahead you don't have a leg to stand on. I would enlist the help of neighbors with the promise of fresh eggs whenever you can spare them! I would also recommend you passing around the link for mad city chickens

Its a documentary about citified people caring for their backyard chickens

 

[Msbear]

Yeah, what he said

It's important to get across the cutesy backyard flock and not the crowing, smelly menagerie

There will have to be rules put in place like limit of birds permitted and level of care and cleanliness but I think most city folk are realizing that chickens don't equal disease and filth.

 

[Boyd]

Just like with swine flu, Avian Influenza is over hyped and most people realize this now a days.... if we could only get the media to listen to the people

That would probably be the only drawback. Heck, I'm sure if they wouldn't change the law, you could get an ordinance variance to "homestead" on your property. I mean, sheesh, there is a homestead clause in every mortgage in America....