Local rules outside of Philadelphia

[fe0208]

I emailed out local township asking about raising poultry. The response I got was...

The Township Zoning Ordinance requires a minimum of (3) acres in order to house farm animals including poultry. If you have (3) acres or more, you can have (50) poultry per acre. All buildings housing the animals or poultry must be a minimum of (50) feet from the property lines.

We live in a rural area and many people in the area have chickens, geese, and horses. Our lot is just over an acre so I guess we don't qualify? However, our neighbor who has the same size lot has a coop with a large run. Are there different rules of you plan on just having the animals as pets? I am not looking to house 50 birds! We are looking at about 3.

 

[Rickba]

Well, it depends. How ling have they been there, they may be grandfathered. Or, the school or though that it's OK unless someone complains. Usually, if you don't have a noisy rooster waking people up in the morning, most people don't care. Of course keep the coop clean so it doesn't smell. Think about how are you going to dispose of the waste. Food for thought.

 

[rosemarythyme]

If you're on good terms with your neighbor(s) ask them if they were grandfathered in with their coop - maybe the law changed only recently. Though I'm guessing a lot of the people you're seeing with chickens either have them illegally, or possibly their lot is zoned differently than yours even though you're in the same area.