Urban Chicken Controversy

[Mike in Ohio]

http://www.newwest.net/city/article/...quabble/C8/L8/

Interesting article and associated video link regarding people trying to keep chickens in their back yards.

Edited to add: I jsut watched the video and it is well worth watching. I guess there is a proposed ordinance in Missoula to allow chickens (up to 6?) but no roosters. The video gives both sides but appears to favor the chickens.


Mike

[crashy]

Dont they have better things to worry about than a few folks having a few chickens in THIER own yard?? I can think of a LOT more things that are worse than chickens.

[NWoods_Hippie]

Here is a NPR story that aired November 4th, about Urban Chickens in NYC, the realtor that speaks during the story sounds like a big meanie!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...or---=15926797

Margie

[renloy]

If people can have dogs I dont see why they shouldnt be able to have a few chickens. Dogs make a lot more noise and poo than a chicken or 2.

[Kmac15]

My mother lives in North Charleston in a very old community. She has been wanting chickens for years but is afraid of the city council. I am trying to convince her to make a small tractor and put a few silkies in it as show birds.
We all must do what we can to bring our food closer to the dinner table

[hotzcatz]

We are supposed to have a six chicken limit in our neighborhood although it doesn't get enforced much. There were some "wild" chickens in the gulch next to our house and one neighbor did call the police on me once when those chickens dug up her flowers but when I explained that those weren't my chickens that was about the end of it. We do have some chickens in the backyard, there are usually less than six, currently there are twelve but we will eat a few when they get bigger and be back to six again. If they get out of the back yard, the escapees soon get eaten by neighborhood dogs and the "wild" chickens in the gulch have disappeared. Don't know if they were trapped, moved away from the road or got eaten but they aren't visible anymore and they aren't digging up the neighbor's flowers anymore so it is all good again.

Even with the six chicken limit, we still end up with goats and horses in the neighborhood and there's wild pigs everywhere so I dunno how they are gonna enforce that if they ever make an ordinance against pigs. Hmm, actually there is one come to think of it, no swine are to be kept. No peacocks, no swine. They don't even attempt to enforce the ordinance against the wild pigs. And the six chicken limit is just that - six chickens, gender not determined so if I get too much grief, instead of just hens, I could keep six roosters for about six months and then switch back to hens and they wouldn't mind the hens anymore - that is, if they were so foolish as to grumble much in the first place.

If your mum were to have a cute little coop with several hens in it the City Council probably wouldn't even notice. Just tell the City Council they are canaries on steroids. Or keep loud screeching parrots for awhile, then the neighbors will be glad if you switch over to chickens!

[Belleweather]

We're in very urban Madison Wisconsin, and we're allowed to have chickens. I think the limit is 4 per houshold, no roosters. We had a couple of neighbors who had chickens before we moved, and we honestly didn't notice a thing until I caught her out feeding them one day and cussing up a storm at an 'escapee'.

I'd love to get into it myself, but haven't worked up the knowlege or the guts yet to ask the landlady about it -- I'd love to see the looks on the faces of our next door neighbors, though. They're a very um... "consumption-focused" modern sort of family and would hit the roof the moment they saw a chicken coop on our side of the shared yard. It's on my list of projects to pick up in the next couple of years though... right after I find myself a "chicken apprenticeship".

[Terry W]

Originally Posted by Kmac15

My mother lives in North Charleston in a very old community. She has been wanting chickens for years but is afraid of the city council. I am trying to convince her to make a small tractor and put a few silkies in it as show birds.
We all must do what we can to bring our food closer to the dinner table

My former roommate is from N Charleston-- her father raises fighting gamecocks in the area---- they are kept under some bushes- no one has ever complained....

[silentcrow]

One guy in that video commented that people go to "cities" to get away from things like that. Then why do so many of them move to the country and complain because their neighbor has chickens (or other livestock)? I had that problem in one place I lived. So, no matter where you go, someone is going to pitch a fit. I think keeping a few chickens is a good thing. It's not like they have guineas! Those make much more noise than any hen (or rooster) I've ever had.

[silentcrow]

Originally Posted by NWoods_Hippie

Here is a NPR story that aired November 4th, about Urban Chickens in NYC, the realtor that speaks during the story sounds like a big meanie!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...or---=15926797

Margie

Chickens only lay for 3 years???? I better tell my 5 year old sexlink! She's still laying eggs

[Mr. Dot]

Still waiting for the vid to download but in the meantime may I just say - Missoula? Urban??

[Shinsan]

In some areas, bantams are considered to be 'cage birds', (like canaries and finches, etc), and can be a way around ordinances prohibiting chickens.

[belladulcinea]

Wow, that realtor must not watch tv, Martha Stewart made chickens famous in the urban/suburban settings a long time ago. There are alot of "celebs" that raise chickens too, so I'm thinking that realtor is just nutty! We live in a suburban setting but it's a neighborhood too, we have guineas that run everywhere around here!

[GoddessKristie]

That video made me smile! We're planning to get chickens in the spring. Currently our town does not allow chickens, but does allow small caged birds (as well as up to 25 dogs-make sense of that one). Our neighbor raises wild turkeys on the back of his lot (he has two acres and our lots are both over 300' deep), and told the town council he was raising quail LOL. So I think I can get away with it. Hopefully we can get a fence up before too long and then do whatever the hell we want!
It still irks me that I own this land and have to follow stupid rules like that.

[hotzcatz]

One of the chickens in the backyard is a guinea fowl. Speckles is a riot to watch and the other neighbors are pretty "chicken friendly" otherwise that noisy bird would be soup! He at least doesn't make noise at night otherwise he's usually making some sort of noise. Most of it is small constant cheepings and beepings but sometimes he stands on the shed roof and screeches. Knock him off the roof, he just flies up there and continues to screech. Not overly bright, but has festive speckled feathers and is fun "yard art" to watch. The border collie and Specks play "tag" a lot. I'm not sure who is herding who sometimes.

[Jeff54321]

Mr. Dot

"Still waiting for the vid to download but in the meantime may I just say - Missoula? Urban??"
---------------------------------
You apparently have not been in the "new" Missoula lately.

[Mr. Dot]

Originally Posted by Jeff54321

Mr. Dot

"Still waiting for the vid to download but in the meantime may I just say - Missoula? Urban??"
---------------------------------
You apparently have not been in the "new" Missoula lately.

Ha! I get stuck on Reserve when I go in for supplies twice a month and I do recall the good old days of the peace sign and the pulp mill inversion but, again, Urban??

I take your meaning though...At least the Ox is still open (although sadly with no live Keno lady).

:1pig:

[Clifford]

Similar thing happened here in Wisconsin. The State capital, Madison finally passed an ordinace allowing 4 laying hens (no roosters), etc.

Here is their website.

http://madcitychickens.com/

[NEOhioSmiths]

I live in Bath Township in Ohio, a historic farming/agricultural community. Technically, I'm supposed to have at least 2.5 acres before I can have chickens! We have just under 2, which in my opinion, is plenty of room for a few laying hens (no roosters). Does everybody agree?

[BaronsMom]

Even in Lincoln, Nebraska, people can have chickens in your backyard if you follow the ordinances (and those are some pretty urban neighborhoods) - no roosters though