Quiet Stealth Chicken Coop

[kklowell]

I think another consideration with neighbors that close is, what do you do about the smell and how will you deal with the refuse from cleaning the coop?
If you plan on bribing the neighbors with fresh eggs I think you'd need a ton of chickens.

 

[K85trb]

What about a different kind of bird? Quail are pretty quiet, kept as pets, as well as for meat and eggs. They are smaller than chickens.

 

[aart]

What about a different kind of bird? Quail are pretty quiet, kept as pets, as well as for meat and eggs. They are smaller than chickens.

That is an excellent suggestion!!
Quail start laying at like 6 weeks....and the meat is delicious.
Or rabbits...they're the quietest!
Chickens are loud, even the females.

 

[TheWickedChicken]

Your neighborhood is way too closely packed for having any chance of hiding chickens. Don’t do it. Free eggs or not people don’t appreciate being woken up early in the morning (or even sometimes at night) by yelling hens. Plus chickens get stinky when kept in tight confines like that. You will likely get complaints and have the HOA coming down to get you (or your mom actually since she’s the adult).

 

[The Moonshiner]

Are quail really that quiet?
I raised Coturnix for several years and thought they were noisy. Not as loud as chickens but loud enough that those neighbors would hear them.

I think the lesson here is DONT BUY A HOME IN A HOA if you enjoy having a say in what you can do on your own property.

 

[TheWickedChicken]

I think the lesson here is DONT BUY A HOME IN A HOA if you enjoy having a say in what you can do on your own property.

This. Thankfully the OP is only a teenager and can keep that in mind when he grows up and moves out. Nothing worse than planting your roots somewhere as an adult and realizing later that you want chickens but can’t have them. HOAs are the worst.

 

[bobbi-j]

Are quail really that quiet?
I raised Coturnix for several years and thought they were noisy. Not as loud as chickens but loud enough that those neighbors would hear them.

I think the lesson here is DONT BUY A HOME IN A HOA if you enjoy having a say in what you can do on your own property.

Agreed. OP, your parents signed the contract saying they agree with and will follow the HOA regulations. I don't live in an HOA (thankfully), but wonder if breaking that contract would not only result in fines, but may cause your family to end up looking for a new home. (Which may not be all bad since you and your parents want to do your own thing anyway.)

 

[gimmie birdies]

I live in a development where everyone has at least 1 acre. We have 2 because of our positioning. They did not have rules about chickens, then about 20 years after living here with roosters, our neighbors who moved in knowing we had roosters, (the same neighbor built our coop), well this neighbor changed the rules to say no roosters. My HOA never does anything about the HOA, so I still have roosters, but I keep them more quiet. I have a night sleep box, I don't let the roosters out until 9 or so, they have crow collars, and some times after I get him to breed with my hens I re-home. I have not had any complaints.

Some day I plan to live someplace warm, and have tall walls, I want to have maybe 2 of those Egyptian chickens, they look like roadrunners anyway, or something very small, just hens though.

 

[LittleMissCountry]

I would go with the route of petitioning the HOA for approval. You could check with your neighbors first and see how they feel about it and if they are fine, then put together a proposal for the HOA. If your neighbors are not on board, no matter how much you try to hide them, they will find out. Believe me. We live in an HOA, and are allowed to have chickens but have strict rules about the coop placement. There is one person in our neighborhood (nowhere near to us) who looks for reasons to complain about neighbors breaking the HOA agreement. Not worth it to try to be stealthy.
Are you in FFA or 4H? One of our friends lives in town, and their son got a special permit to raise chicks for a certain amount of time in a poultry restricted area. He made up a proposal, including his plan for the coop, how many chickens, the breed, and what the long term plan was (relocating to grandparents). The HOA approved it, and told him the reason was because of his passion and thoroughness in his plan.

 

[Blooie]

"I believe in rules and laws. I just don't want them to apply to me." You're at the perfect time in your life to understand that that isn't how the world works. I'm sorry, but the others are right. An HOA is a legal binding contract to maintain a property in the ways spelled out in the contract. You didn't sign it, but your parents did which binds you to the terms of that contract too.

This usually comes as a shock to chicken people, but not everyone likes them as much as we do. For example, personally, I don't like cats, which cat lovers find offensive as all get out. I think of them as critters roaming all night long, getting under my house and leaving their "marks" behind, cats torn and bloody from cat fights, while they think of Fluffy sitting on a cushion in front a fire, and purring on their laps. It's about perception. We can't change it.

I wish the answer was what you wanted to hear. You seem to be an intelligent, articulate young person with a lot of chicken keeping potential and I hate to discourage that. I'm sure a lot of stealth chicken people owners will chime in and say that they'e been doing it for years and haven't been caught. Well, chicken keeping can get pretty involved, with lots of things to worry about and fuss over. Adding the "fear of getting caught" and using elaborate subterfuge to raise a few chickens shouldn't have to be one of those things.