ke_ben: Nice birds! The campine is especially a cutie and he's quite the handsome roo. Fairs, IMHO, are a wonderful family outing and very enjoyable...if only for the yearly corn dog fix!
Abba: Me thinks you're about to join the Backyard barnyard group! Sounds like the whole family has the lambie bug. The only thing more adorable are bottle-fed mini-goats.... Watch out!
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re: Update on neighborhood consent....
This has actually turned into quite the community event with folks polarized baja/alta on the street. All of us baja and immediately impacted (within possible sight/sound/smell of two hens) are all for the project. Those alta on the street (past 200 feet away and likely not even going to know of their presence) are not so keen on it. Two of my neighbors want to help build the coop, lots of them want to see if/when the eggs hatch and I've got one darling elderly couple a few doors down that I just want to adopt.
The very top alta house turned into a surprise: We -- husby and I -- approached the neighbor and he flat out said "No. I don't want chickens in my neighborhood." We politely gave our spiel, told him how excited the community was, and deftly pointed out that our downhill neighbor could keep chickens being outside of his 'zone of consent'...not that he'd ever know if she was or not. "No. I do not want chickens in my neighborhood." Bummer! That means the project was dead.
So I'm out doing errands the next day when my husband called. Mr. "I do not want chickens in my neighborhood" had just been down to the house. Apparently his wife got wind of his attitude and gave him grief all night long. "We would never even know those chickens were there. Our dachshund makes more noise than two little hens would. You go down there and sign that paper!" (Go Wifey!!!) DH spent several minutes really talking to the neighbor, validating his concerns about the presence of chickens and assuring him that we were not "white trash chicken keepers" (knee-jerk reaction lots of people have when you mention chickens in the neighborhood....they envision loose birds, broken appliances/trucks in the front of the house and overgrown yards) and they TOGETHER hatched up a plan to have a coop party once it was built (all 6x5 of the portable hen abode) so the neighbors could weigh in on it. I may just build the coop anyway even if not allowed to keep Ameraucanas....it's designed to carry through the gates. And, being a darling coop/shed with lots o' gingerbread, it would not be an eyesore in the backyard...just a funky little outbuilding with no real purpose. (Well, I suppose I could store dog toys and bbq briquets in it..)
So with just a handful more of revocable consents to gather, I will carry on. A couple of them I don't know when I'll get as they seem to be secondary houses. One alta person has said she'll sign IF all the other neighbors sign (heaven forbid she be the lone dissenter). Hopefully I can successfully jump through these few remaining hoops and prove that the only thing they have to worry about being impacted by is a fear of getting fresh eggs....