Official BYC Poll: Which Challenges Did You Face in Getting Backyard Chickens?

[BYC Project Manager]

Whether you want to raise chickens for your own eggs or your own meat, you want to be self-sufficient. You have done your research on basic chicken care. When it came to getting chickens, what are the biggest challenges you encountered?

Place your vote above, and please elaborate in a reply below if you chose "Other".

Further Reading:

• How To Raise Chickens​

• Common Mistakes Poultry Keepers Make (And How to Fix Them)​

• Keeping Chickens Without Free Ranging​

(Check out more exciting Official BYC Polls HERE!)

 

[K0k0shka]

A nasty neighbor discovered a gray area in the zoning law that didn't strictly define the laws around chicken-keeping, and he tried to exploit that to get the town to take my chickens away. After a prolonged battle that turned ugly, the town took my side and rewrote the laws to make it explicitly clear that chickens are not to be regulated. I haven't heard from that neighbor since (knock on wood... I still have PTSD and am too afraid to celebrate, because you never know with people like that). That's it though, everything else has been smooth sailing.

 

[jsbugg]

A nasty neighbor discovered a gray area in the zoning law that didn't strictly define the laws around chicken-keeping, and he tried to exploit that to get the town to take my chickens away. After a prolonged battle that turned ugly, the town took my side and rewrote the laws to make it explicitly clear that chickens are not to be regulated. I haven't heard from that neighbor since (knock on wood... I still have PTSD and am too afraid to celebrate, because you never know with people like that). That's it though, everything else has been smooth sailing.

I'm sorry you have to deal with a nasty neighbor. Maybe they'll move soon. I was lucky with my next door neighbor. The town ordinance dictates that the coop and run have to be 10 feet from the property line. When the animal control officer came to inspect my coop before I was granted a license the neighbor cae over and told the officer that he was happy that I had my coop and run behind my garage close enough to his back porch so he and his wife could sit on their porch and see and hear my hens. I got my license and the coop is only 4 feet from the property line! My neighbors are out every morning and eat their breakfast on the porch on nice days when I go out to let my girls out into their run. they say they love to see how goofy the birds are when they get a little running room and love to hear the egg song. Of course I share extra eggs with them often.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Main issue I guess was being able to find a house we could afford that was in a chicken friendly area while still close to the technology hubs where hubby could find work. We moved for more reasons than just to get chickens, but they were on my lists of requirements when looking at properties.

 

[3KillerBs]

Other -- We needed to get our housing and employment situation into a position where I wasn't working long hours and we weren't in the middle of trying to move.

Other -- the price of lumber while building the new coop.

Other -- finding the breeds we wanted when I couldn't order them but, instead, had to buy locally.

 

[Regina Larsen]

We went big with the coop, renovating the old hay/feed barn. Skyrocketed lumber prices and several injuries slowed us down. But we are happy with the result

 

[TooCheep]

My biggest difficulty was the fact that I was bootstrapping from nearly zero when I started. I had no friends/neighbors who had chickens. No previous personal experience. No farming/livestock background.

I spent a *lot* of time reading, viewing videos, and searching for online resources. BackYardChickens was a big help here. I had to learn about breeds, housing, general care, health, etc.

5 years later and I'm now an old hand at it. I'm glad I took the journey.

 

[Brooks_]

Building the coop was most challenging for me. I know how to use a saw and all, I'm just not good at it. Fortunately, my mis-cuts were along seams that were planned to get trim wood over anyway. So, from the outside most everything looks intentional. Doors are wonky.

 

[jklhgyfhg]

Other - Deciphering information before even getting started!
deciphering the squabbles over accurate and inaccurate information (not this blog, this one, not this youtuber etc).
Deciphering the squabble between those who do things conventionally vs those who like to try new things differently. (If we never tried something new, we would never progress to make changes in the world.)
Deciphering between those who have high standards most likely for breading purposes and keeping lineage or keep chickens as pets, and their opinions and standards coming down very hard on those not doing exactly like they do vs people who have chickens as an addition to their farm/for eggs or meat production and most likely just use what they have to make it work.
And then of course there is deciphering information from people (or businesses) who really don't know what they're talking about (like looking at a conventionally made pre-fab coop said to house up to x number of birds when really it can house less than half that number, which then leads to its own problems...).

 

[TwoShepherds]

I don’t build, so for me the biggest challenge is coop and run/fence construction.