I'm not sure if I can keep birds or not.

[MaryanneD]

Firstly, let say hello! I am new to this forum and have never kept chickens or other poultry.

I have been tossing around the idea of having birds for awhile now. I wasn't able to find my municiple codes online, so I contacted my borough's zoning representative. I live in Carnegie, right outside of Pittsburgh, PA. Their response was (yes, this was the entire email response):

No wild animals except in a park, zoological garden or

similar establishment for the exhibit to the public.

No domestic animals except for household pets.

So that's pretty cryptic. I wasn't sure if they were going by the "common household pet" definition so I asked for some clarification.

If they live within your house = household pets.

I was planning on keeping some coturnix quail in a hutch out back, but it seems like that wouldn't count as a household pet...

Is there anyway that you think I could swing this so that I could keep my quail? I don't have the space to keep them inside where they would get any kind of sunshine or nice ventilation.

Thanks for all of your help! And nice to meet you

 

[thebirdguy]

Quail can be pretty quiet.. It seems to me that a person with a semi disguised coop could easily keep a few incognito quail.

 

[MaryanneD]

My yard is kind of small... The fenced in back yard is about 40'x30'. It would be pretty obvious that I have birds. I don't know that my neighbors will care though.

 

[FoodKillah]

Quail can be pretty quiet

i am not sure about that, i dont have any but

dont get bobwhite quail if you want to keep them a secret because they are very loud. Quee Quee QUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE is what my whole area around my house sounds like when my single bobwhite quail is singing. It makes this calls 3-4 times a day for 5-10 minutes each time.

Chickens are household pets arnt they?

Why dont you ask them to clarify "inside the house" too. I think that house means your property that your house is built in. Get 2 chickens, they are so easy to keep and so peaceful and quiet and dont really need too much space.

Oh, if i keep a dog outside of my building in the yard, its not inside the house, would that make a dog *not household pet*.

Welcome to BYC

GET CHICKENS

 

[dsqard]

Quote:
I think it would be classified as a wild animal by the zoning representative

To the OP is there any way you can go to city hall and request a copy of the statutes? Always a nice thing to have handy and sometimes "officials" don't know the law, just say what they think it is. Hope you can have your birds!

 

[desertdarlene]

That response they gave you in the e-mail was a bit flippant "If they live within your house = household pets.". I can keep a serval or a bobcat in my house, but it's not a household pet.

 

[FoodKillah]

Quote:
isnt it? "dear we must visit the jungle to release our tiger"

just joking hehe

 

[MaryanneD]

I thought his reply was really flippant too. That's why I am a bit hesitant to have him clarify further. It doesn't seem like they have hard and fast rules set out with nice definitions. Hehe in the township I used to live in there was a huge laundry list of animals you weren't allowed to have (camel, rhinos, bobcats, tigers, bison, etc) It was really funny because they kept adding more when they thought of it. Eventually they just reworded the thing so it said what you could have

The only reason I don't want chickens is that I have your standard chain link fence and my neighbors have a dog. I don't really want him jumping the fence to get at my birds. I figured at least with a quail hutch, they would be off the ground. Can you have just 2 chickens? I thought they were social birds that needed bigger groups? (pardon my noobishness. I don't know a thing about keeping these birds yet

)

As for the noise level of the quail, I wasn't really interested in bobwhite. We've got enough of the buggers running around for me to want more

The cute little coturnix seem to be just right from what I was reading. I'm not sure how noisy they are...

 

[FoodKillah]

Can you have just 2 chickens? I thought they were social birds that needed bigger groups? (pardon my noobishness.

Yes you can and you might have a little space for a small coop for them so the dog cant get them. That could give you 2 fresh tasty eggs everyday, plus the joy of hanging around with them when they free range so that mad dog stays away. It brings you peace. Birds are less friendly than chickens and less interactive.

Excuse me for trying to make you a chicken addict like me.​

 

[MaryanneD]

I'm thinking the wheel idea would be the closest to abiding by the code. That way I can wheel them inside the house if I needed to prove it was a household pet. I'm still leaning toward quail

I've read the coturnix are as friendly as chickens.

While I do love chicken eggs dearly, quail eggs might be nice too