Only one hen :-(

[BlackSilkie1]

Hey at least you can have one, i look out our front windo and across the street is a huge field but NOOOOO chickens are "wild", "Vicious", and "Dangerous to mankind" (But you can have a gillion dogs and cats, and other animals) I wanted to say to the lady what are they going to do conspire aginst me, tie me up, and dive bomb the president, than take over the WORLD??????

 

[HHandbasket]

Someone asked me yesterday, "Aren't your chickens really noisy? I've heard they're really noisy." Well, they make some sounds, yes. Are they "noisy"? Let's look at what's "noisy" in my neighborhood...

The loud boomboomboom followed by foul-language rap that drives by my house 20 times a day is noisy.

The german shepherd in the yard kitty-corner from us that barks at EVERYTHING that walks by is noisy.

The jerks that go racing up and down my street are noisy.

Because this is a bad neighborhood, there are a lot of fights and we have a lot of law enforecement and various other emergency vehicles coming down our street at least a couple of times a week with sirens blaring. Those are noisy.

The couple across the street and to the right from us that fight almost nightly out in the street is noisy.

The gunfire we hear in the distance almost every weekend is noisy.

The neighbor down the street who fires up his diesel engine pick-up truck at 5:00 in the morning to let it warm up for 15 minutes before he goes to work is noisy. Real noisy.

If I didn't bring you into my backyard and physically SHOW YOU my coop, you would never in a million years know I have chickens. You can't hear 'em, and you can't smell 'em.

Yet, "noise" is one of the reasons chickens aren't allowed here. If they're gonna outlaw stuff that's noisy, let's start with the boomboom car stereos that rattle my house windows....

I'm just sayin', chickens aren't noisy.

 

[katdam]

gotta say, i'm glad were i live the boom boom music is illegal...and you will get a ticket!

 

[dntd]

I swear one more lawnmower, people here do thier lawns daily ! We live infront of a lighted tennis court that stays lit until 11, a baseball diamond were loud speakers are used, a hockey arena, down the street is a GM plant, add everyone's horrible choice in backyard music and drugdeals/police,wild teens at night and crazy active kids/dogs in the park at 6am, my rooster was so quiet, he spent most of his day inside but some lady figures she has a right to complain about imagenary crowing( claims day,night and early mornings, he was kept inside in a windowless bathroom from 6pm-10am+ Though some times he wandered the house, even coplained after I rehomed him that peeved me off so much!). I ended up getting rid of him and his girls and now only have 6 egglayer.

 

[BlackSilkie1]

I know how you feel, our neighbor mows his lawn every 2 days at like 6 in the morning I know how you feel, the people across the street the 17 year old warms up his car at 6:30 am to go to Caseys up the road at 8 (tempted to pour sugar in the gas tank) and the people behind us are slobs who are lazy, etc.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Most city have noise ordinances that require loud machinery to not be operated during certain hours. My city has two sets of criteria. One is related to typical uses for the zone, the other relates to construction. Maximum decibels are listed for each type of zone (all residential zones have a max. decibels of 55 from 7am - 10pm and 45 from 10pm - 7am, Construction noises are limited to 5 decibels above the zone maximum--if noise is epected to eceed that number, then written permission from the city is needed. Also the hours are limited to 6 or 7 am during the week until 7 pm. (Start time is earlier from April through October.) Concrete pouring can start an hour earlier. Weekends and holidays are always 7am (6 for concrete) - 7pm.

 

[HHandbasket]

There are noise ordinances here, too, but due to California's budget crisis, they do not have the ability to enforce it... so code enforcement cruises around and looks for code violators, including people with free-roaming "livestock" (chickens), so they can be cited and fined. That's their whole way of trying to bring revenue into the city.

My thought is that if the city sells permits to citizens to keep up to half a dozen chickens in their backyard, as long as they are not violating any CC&Rs in a subdivision or HOA community, I think that would generate far greater revenues for the city than fining individuals just for keeping chickens.

On the flipside of that, the city could continue to fine those out of compliance (i.e., if there is a permit for 6 chickens, and somehow you end up with 10 or 20), then I think a person should be given perhaps 5 business days to come into compliance or be fined.

Who will oversee this? Well, who oversees it now?

I think it would save at least 1 or 2 law enforcement positions in the city, which we desperately need.