Received a complaint- no chickens?

[ChlorophyllChick]

We got our chickens a few months ago after doing research into whether we could legally own them. The zoning laws for the town say that agricultural use is permitted for all districts. Poultry is listed under agricultural use. We got 6 chickens and one ended up being a rooster. He got pretty loud before we took care of him a couple weeks ago. A man just came to the door telling me that they received a complaint about chickens. He was the code enforcement officer from the town. I told him that the rooster was taken care of, but he seemed to ignore that and said that we cannot have chickens. He said we would receive a letter about it, but he didn't give me much info. We are really confused now, we were unable to find anything that said chickens were not allowed under any circumstances. We got rid of the rooster because he was noisy, but from everything we have found, we should have been allowed to have him also. I'm not sure if the complaint was because he was so noisy or the chickens in general. We have invested a lot of time and money into the chickens and we are kind of attached to them besides. What do we do now?

 

[Denninmi]

First of all, read your local ordinances really closely. They code enforcement officer could be uninformed or intentionally lying about the legality of chickens in your zoning.

 

[pottymouthspoultry]

I ask him to show you the ordinance in writing!

 

[train2110]

Is there an udate to this?

 

[NewOldMotherHen]

Did you get his name and see his official ID?

 

[Chickenrandomness]

my advice is don't listen to him and tell him the zoning laws and how they allow you to keep chickens.
there is no reason why you should have chickens if the law permits. tell him they are pets and are evern quieter than a dog

lastly, ask him who complained. if your chickens are laying, bring a dozen of eggs or so to whoever complained and explain to them that they are your pets.


hope this helps! good luck

 

[Kudzu]

I think I would wait on the letter.

 

[sadies chicks]

Quote:
X2 sounds fishy....

 

[train2110]

Did you read the official zoning laws? Not sure where you are located, my town has them online as well as at Town Hall. All you have to do is ask the City Clerk. I am estimating it has been almost two weeks and you have not received a letter yet. My experience is when there is a legitimate issue; the town will send a letter within a week.

Not to get your hopes up, but more than likely he got back to the office and realized he was wrong.

 

[equinelyn]

Yes I'm curious to see the update. He probably got back to his office and put his foot in his mouth.