Jackbooted Chicken seeks input on ordinances

[EweSheep]

Seattle has some chicken classrooms for those who wanted to learn and care for chickens. It would be an added bonus to the new chicken owner. Sometimes it would be like a prequistist (sp) before they ever get chickens or before they get their permit. Its like passing class before you ever get to drive.

The permit looks like it would benefit you as the CEO to keep track of chicken owners. One bad apple spoils the rest of the good apples. If nothing is complied for the second time, the permit would be revoked and owner should be fined and would not ever have chickens again if they break the ordiances.

With my manure disposal, I had a mulch pile but the neighbor beside me was complaining about the smell which we could not smell anything offensive. What it came down, the culprit was the dead grass under from our pool when we took it down so therefore, the neighbor mistaken it for the manure pile that I had for my garden. Also he said it attracted rats as well. My city officer said, if you can do us a favor, just bag the manure up and haul it off by your garbage man or you can sell the chicken manure for those who do need it for their garden. If you do accept compost pile, make sure it is limed down or in containers to keep the smell down. Yes odor has to be kept to a minimum. Sometimes when it rains, it stinks and owner must be extra careful in how to keep that to a minimum such as lime, DE and Stall Dry which all of them are wonderful products to use. Sands in runs helps alot.

So I do not mind putting them in the garbage, it benefits me to keep the chickens and neighbors happy even my garden is sore of need of manure.

Also, you might want to look into disposal of dead chickens if one can not bury any pet animals in their backyards. I put mine in garbage bags or double wrapped in plastic bags and dispose of them since our city does not allow burials for our pet animals.

Yep chickens for dummies looks like a good book to have! Every city folk should have that book or anyone that is starting out in owning chickens.

 

[gaduke]

 

[wombat]

You could set up two tiers of flock sizes, if you don't mind things being a bit more complicated in exchange for allowing more flexibility ... or you could just restrict to three or five hens and keep it simple.

Something like up to five hens to be kept at least 10' from any property line and 20' from any dwelling, _or_ up to 12 hens if kept at least 20 feet from your own dwelling and 50' from any other dwelling. That would allow people with more space the ability to keep more birds if they have sufficient space and setback. More birds equals more potential for noise and waste issues, though ...

You'lll probably want to set some sort of rule regarding the amount of space required for a run, or that sufficient fencing be in place to contain birds allowed free run of the entire property. 10 sq feet of run per bird is a rule of thumb, though bantams could get by on less. In my experience, birds tend to be noisier when closely confined / crowded. People may also want to use "chicken tractors" as an alternative, in which case having less than 10 sq feet per bird and moving the portable run is workable. I'm not sure how many sq feet per bird is advisable when tractoring.

You'd probably want to set rules about waste storage / disposal. Do you have an existing ordinace regarding composting?
I think your idea about permits/inspections is good ... though I'm not a big fan of heavy-handed government, I think you'd need the ability to react if people are not keeping their runs/coops clean and have them that close to neighbors. A well maintained, spacious coop with a few hens is no problem at all. A crowded coop/run that is never cleaned is a major nuisance, and I would not want one just over the fence from my BBQ grill and picnic table!

It's hard to regulate how clean something is to be kept, but if you include language allowing inspections, and state that owners can be cited for failing to maintain clean quarters and/or failing to properly contain/dispose of waste, and include the ability to levy a fine or as a last resort revoke the owner's permit, you'll have the abilty to investigate and deal with complaints about smell / flies. Typically allowing 10 days to remediate problems upon warning or be fined, and being given thirty days to remediate or having a permit revoked after three violations or in cases of setback / distance issues might be a good solution. It gives responsible owners enough time to correct problems without penalty, but it allows you to deal with irresponsible owners appropriately.

The rooster issue is a touchy one. They're nice to have around, and some people will want to breed show birds or breeding stock / fertilzied eggs. On the other hand, roosters will crow, and not everyone adores the sound ... and some roosters will decide to crow all night long.

You could either limit to one adult rooster and make them also specifically subject to noise ordinances and treat violators like a barking dog, or you could decide roosters are too likely to annoy neighbors and not allow roos at all.

You may already have state level regulations that control the selling of eggs and stock, so you might want to check that out before you delve into that area. The egg selling is probably more an agriculture / health issue than one of animal control.

How will you deal with a situation where you have to inspect, and then find sickly birds in the course of your inspection? Require the owner to either dispose of diseased birds, or get a vet to treat within x days, and subsequently sign off on the flock health? Or will you not concern yourself with this issue? It's going to come up sooner or later.

Salmonella is extremely rare these days, but you might want to set up provisions to allow for testing when required, just in case, and figure out how to handle this. SDI makes a fairly easy to use test kit ... but you may already have state-level resources available to you, and it is unlikely you will need to deal with this issue as it is rather uncommon.

Nice to see someone in your position taking the side of chicken lovers and trying to find a way to make this work. It's easier to just say "no", as many jurisdictions do.