Oshawa, Ontario

[vermontgal]

Whether to go under the radar or try to influence the law -- well, I guess for me it might depend on how bad the bylaw would be likely to be, and how many people you already know who would be affected or would be willing to try to influence it.

If it is really that close to going in, then there should be a draft of the new bylaws that should be available for public review - maybe even on the city's website?

 

[Zoomom]

I really don't know how many people have or want chickens in Oshawa. I know of someone years ago that had them in the back yard, but they had complaints and the chickens were taken away, and another person who had one hen in her apartment that had her hen taken away.
I remember years ago there was a horse living in Oshawa on Grandview St. just beside the ravine, but right smack in the middle of the city. I assume that horse was grandfathered in.
I guess the only way to find out if there are other chicken people is to go public with my quest.
I'll keep my eye out for by law meetings. They always have them in the local paper.
I'd rather be legal if I can.
Lisa

 

[tomcio]

Quote:
Hi, would you mind sending me a link to the Ontario law that states that?

Thanks,

Tom

 

[Chick_a_dee]

Quote:
Hi, would you mind sending me a link to the Ontario law that states that?

Thanks,

Tom

I honestly have no idea where it is but that is what the municipal offices tell you, ask at your local government office and they can give you all the information. It's based on zoning, not too long ago if you had a Rural Residential property you could have at the least chickens, now you can't have much at all. We're zoned Marginal Agricultural.

 

[tomcio]

Quote:
I may have to look into this. Mostly because I find it hard to believe they would pass such a silly Provincial law. I know where I am (Ottawa), you have to be zoned AG (agricultural) to have livestock, and it has to be over 1 acre. Thankfully I meet both. The ordinance is on the Municipal level of course.

If you say that the Province requires minimum 15 acres, then many hobby farm in my area couldn't exist.

I'll post again if I find it.

Cheers,

Tom

 

[HeatherFeather]

Well,

We'll be picking up our chickens easter weekend. We're getting them from a hobby poultry farmer near Fergus (who has tonnes of livestock and maybe only 3-5 acres tops btw)

I thought about silkies too Zoomom, as they look very 'pet like'; but they are said to be too broody, and not very good layers. I'm not sure which breed we're going to get, my friend has several.

I'm going under the radar for sure. I'm too concerned that if the city knows who I am and where I live, then they'll be here lickety split.

I'm hoping that since our back yard is currently a total disaster, the neighbors will be happy to just have it all cleaned up and won't give us any hassles.

I have a feeling that there aren't too many people in Oshawa who are into keeping chickens.

They did grandfather in the pitbulls in Oshawa, so I'm going on that as a precedent.

 

[Zoomom]

Hey HeatherFeather,
Did you get your chickens yet? How are the working out?
We are putting up the last fence section this wekend, but still need a coop. The one neighbor loves the idea of laying hens, we haven't talked to anyone else about it. Don't know if we will...a couple neighbors are really funny about animals. May be better to just sneak them in and if they say anything, smooth it over with some eggs.

 

[chickenwitch]

Quote:
Woah, I hadn't heard about that, but I'm really not surprised. The province are forever interfering with the lives of country people and making it harder and harder to produce safe food. Thankfully we would be grandfathered as we have been here ten years, because we only have 14 acres, and don't quite qualify on size! How silly. We only use a small portion of our acreage anyway, as we simply don't need it all, we leave a good 5 acres "natural". We have sheep and cows as well as our chickens, and there's plenty of space.

We had to take the property tax assessment people to court when we first moved in because of a dirty trick they played on us. They sent an assessor to our door when we were new here, and without actually saying so, he made it sound as if by registering as a farm we would end up paying higher taxes. When we found out it was the opposite, we went to court and won. They will do anything to get more money out of you. Although the lots where I live are miles from any sort of civilization they do everything they can to re-zone them residential to get more property tax.

At least we have the right to farm laws that stop the city yuppies moving in next door and then complaining about smells and noise. I went a step further and took photos of the neighbouring lot in spring flood so the planning permission was rejected. No neighbours! Yippee!!!

 

[Chick_a_dee]

Quote:
Woah, I hadn't heard about that, but I'm really not surprised. The province are forever interfering with the lives of country people and making it harder and harder to produce safe food. Thankfully we would be grandfathered as we have been here ten years, because we only have 14 acres, and don't quite qualify on size! How silly. We only use a small portion of our acreage anyway, as we simply don't need it all, we leave a good 5 acres "natural". We have sheep and cows as well as our chickens, and there's plenty of space.

We had to take the property tax assessment people to court when we first moved in because of a dirty trick they played on us. They sent an assessor to our door when we were new here, and without actually saying so, he made it sound as if by registering as a farm we would end up paying higher taxes. When we found out it was the opposite, we went to court and won. They will do anything to get more money out of you. Although the lots where I live are miles from any sort of civilization they do everything they can to re-zone them residential to get more property tax.

At least we have the right to farm laws that stop the city yuppies moving in next door and then complaining about smells and noise. I went a step further and took photos of the neighbouring lot in spring flood so the planning permission was rejected. No neighbours! Yippee!!!

We're zoned Marginal-Agricultural so a farm but not quite a farm... We really don't have much say and wouldn't have qualified for a mortgage on an Agricultural plot anyway (our mortgage is with the main branch of RBC in Toronto and though any normal sane branch of the bank would grant a mortgage for an agri property for us, the Toronto branch is in fact insane and they would not). We have 8.5 acres and are allowed to have as many horses as fits in our barn as is, and as many of anything else as we like (something I don't quite get...) So we have Chickens, Ducks, A Pony mare (and getting another horse soon...maybe breeding Luna if she checks out all right to a very flashy palomino quarter horse), Vegetables, fruits, etc. We're now planning on some Dexter cows too!

 

[anitapreciouspearl]

Hi!

Just letting you know - my DH called a few weeks ago and there was no bylaw in effect to prohibit poultry in the City of Oshawa. The woman he talked to said: Nope - you're good to go.

We now have a very secure coop and 6 girls who are already on the job laying lovely eggs for us. Our neighbours have been amused/supportive/surprised you don't need a rooster. So far so good.

We do intend to keep right on top of cleaning the coop and handing out free eggs to the neighbours. We also built the coop to be incredibly secure - no escapees and no burglars