Need Help from suburban chicken owners

[theladieskeeper]

Hello everyone
Our fine city of Broadview Heights Ohio, has a committee of council members recommending backyard chickens be banned! We were once rural, now about 70/30 high priced home developments/rural. We personally have almost 3 acres and great neighbors,, and great chickens. But other chicken owners are under attack, and all are about to lose the right to backyard hens.
Would you all mind sending stories and/or cute photos of how fun and beneficial chickens are. I am starting up a webpage called libertycoop.com and would like to post positive stories to counter all the scare tactics the city is pulling, because of 2 complaints by nasty neighbors. the usual mis-perceptions, noise, smell, wandering into neighbors yards, diseases from manure

Please send emails and photos or whatever advice you have about defending our property rights to [email protected]
thank you thank you thank you..
The ladies keeper - Cheryle

 

[N F C]

Maybe you've already seen this information, but just in case...

There's an article on the Learning Center section of BYC about "Chicken Ordinances and How To Change Them". There might be something in that article that will help you prepare.

Good luck with what's coming. Hope it all works out with the chickens.

 

[lazy gardener]

Tried your site. Didn't work. But, I can tell you the positive impact my little flock has made in my yard. Last spring, I started with a flock of 5 pullets. They were allowed to free range in my yard when I was home to supervise them. Otherwise, they were kept in their electronet run. They kept the grass mowed in their run, but did not strip it of vegetation. The coop is a hoop coop style with a loft for roosting and has 2 nest boxes. The lower level is 8 x 12, and is covered with deep litter of leaves, grass clippings and occasionally some hay. There is no smell, and the litter and poop melt into the ground.

This year, I've found that ALL garden/yard pests, are greatly decreased.

Last year, I had to use Sevin to knock down the population of potato beetles, squash bugs, Japanese beetles, and cucumber beetles. Without it, I doubt that I'd have harvested much of a crop. I had to use Iron Phosphate on all of my leafy crops to keep them from getting chewed to the ground by slugs and snails. Every year, I have problems with ants in my sandy loam soil. Every summer, when the queens emerge, the sky is litterally full of black clouds of them swarming up from the ground. It's impossible to walk across the lawn without crunching a dozen under my feet with every step. Last summer, before the queens swarmed, I opened up the ant nests with my shovel, and the 5 girls gorged on ants, queens, eggs and larvae until their crops were bulging. The 2 Japanese beetle traps needed to be emptied twice/day, and there was about a cup full in each trap each time I emptied it. The traps were emptied into a water bowl for the chickens, and they ate every last one. (That's a quart of Japanese beetles every day during the peak of their season.)

So far this season, Slugs and snails are a rare sight. I've been able to hand pick all cucumber beetles, and potato beetles. I've seen very few cabbage butterflies, crickets, and grasshoppers. Japanese beetles have arrived, I have 2 traps up, and am dumping/collecting about 1/2 cup of beetles/day.

I can tell you that I've had dogs, cats, chickens, and an lot of other pets. I will tell you that a flock of 6 or less chickens do not make as much noise, or smell as bad as any dog. The only time a neighbor is likely to hear noise from a hen is when she announces to the world that she's just laid an egg. However, I can't tell you how often I've heard a neighborhood dog barking NON-STOP all hours of the day and night. Too many times to recall. When a chicken speaks, she has something to say. When a dog speaks, it's often just to make noise.

I can tell you that chickens can be personable, and a lot of back yard chicken keepers consider them to be just as much of a pet as any dog or cat. But, they cost less to keep, they are quieter than dogs, they don't smell as much, and they provide eggs, free the yard of pests, and make great little gardening buddies.

My recommendation is to allow a flock of up to 6 hens in urban yards, with reasonable housing requirements including a coop which provides 4 s.f. per bird, and a run which provides 10 s.f. per bird. The chickens should be housed a reasonable distance from neighbor houses. Any neighborhood which allows dogs, should allow chickens. Most towns/cities already have ordinances in place to deal with excess noise, and any other issues such as yard debris, odors, and any other issues that a resident might have with his neighbor's pets. It's unfair to single out one species of pet for exclusion.