Vanderburgh County, Indiana Coop Question

[bcorps]

Anyone know if I need a permit to build my coop? I've got it all designed and ready to start building (though I already ordered chicks LOL), but it occurred to me I would hate to have to tear it down.

I live outside Evansville, IN city limits, so I know their rules won't apply.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Check your county zoning ordinances. Not necessarily specifically for "coops" only but for restrictions on accessory buildings as well. Example: my coop must be set back 10' from property line, but as an accessory structure as long as it is under 200 sq ft w/o utilities it requires no permits.

You did check that chickens are legal in the county, right?

 

[bcorps]

Yes, they are legal. And I checked with the planning commission and they also have a 200 sqft maximum. It seems to be a very common number all over. However, out of sheer dumb luck, I designed mine to be 192 square feet. So no sweat there.

My biggest concern now is that they supposedly limit you to six chickens "per property". That seems pretty arbitrary, especially given that Vanderburgh County has a lot of rural area, and I know LOTS of people have far, far more than six chickens. I just so happened to have only ordered six, but was hoping to raise some for meat. That means keeping chicks past 8 weeks, which is their cutoff where they start counting against the number.

Even more ironically, it is illegal to sell them less than 8 weeks old in quantities less than 25 at a time. So unless you can hatch more than 25 at a time, you essentially have to give them away before they get 8 weeks old, so you're not breaking the limit of six. It seems this whole thing was set up just to discourage one from producing their own food.

 

[rosemarythyme]

My biggest concern now is that they supposedly limit you to six chickens "per property". That seems pretty arbitrary, especially given that Vanderburgh County has a lot of rural area, and I know LOTS of people have far, far more than six chickens. I just so happened to have only ordered six, but was hoping to raise some for meat. That means keeping chicks past 8 weeks, which is their cutoff where they start counting against the number.

Well, unless you have super nosy neighbors who love calling for violations, you can probably get away with having a few extra meat birds without anyone really noticing.