As the days get longer the chickens have started cranking out more eggs. In honor of our first four egg day, pictured above, we present a sampling of arbitrary and strange municipal codes around the country pertaining to chickens. Recent chicken controversies in Missoula (see our post on that dust-up) and Chicago, prove that urban poultry is still controversial.Albuquerque: Zoning allows the raising of unlimited poultry if penned at least 20 feet from neighboring dwellings.
Atlanta: Up to 25 chickens may be kept if adequately housed, i.e. 2 square feet per adult bird, and their enclosure is 50 feet from the nearest neighbor.
Austin: Up to 10 fowl per household, but keep in an enclosure that's 50 feet away from neighbors.
Boston: All residential zones in Boston forbid "auxiliary keeping of animals," which includes poultry and other livestock. No person shall keep any live fowl of other farm animals, except in accordance with a permit from the Division of Health Inspections, Inspectional Services Department.
Chicago: May keep unlimited number of chickens for personal use, but their slaughter is forbidden.
Detroit: Unlawful to own, harbor, keep, or maintain, sell, or transfer any farm animal on their premises or at a public place within the City. [Despite this, we hear tell that there is some pretty progressive urban farming going on in Detroit, including plenty of livestock.]
Los Angeles: Chickens may not be within 20 feet of owner's residence, and must be at least 35 feet from any other dwelling. Crowing fowl must be 100 feet from any dwelling. [Looks like we're breaking the law again!]
Madison: Up to four chickens per household. Not allowed to roam free. Keep pen 25 ft. from neighbors. $6 annual permit required.
Miami: May have up to 15 hens, no roosters. Must be contained at least 100 feet from neighboring structures.
Minneapolis: Must obtain permission of 80% of your neighbors that live within 100 feet. Must be kept penned.
New York: Health Code § 161.19 Keeping of live poultry and rabbits.
(a) No person shall keep a live rooster, duck, goose or turkey in a built-up portion of the City.
(b) A person who holds a permit to keep for sale or sell live rabbits or poultry shall keep them in coops and runways and prevent them from being at large. Coops shall be whitewashed or otherwise treated in a manner approved by the Department at least once a year and at such other times as the Department may direct in order to keep them clean. Coops, runways and the surrounding area shall be kept clean.
Portland: Any animal may be raised for noncommercial purposes with no animals kept on any lot less than three (3) acres or closer than one hundred (100) feet to any street or lot line.
Raleigh: No limit on number of chickens kept.
San Francisco: You may keep any combination of four small animals on your property (dogs, chickens, etc.) without permit
Seattle: Three domestic fowl may be kept on any lot.
Even if you follow the laws above to the letter, you can still have problems with the neighbors. See the excellent Hen Waller blog for their Portland poultry saga (and some snappy vélocouture).
Considering how loud our perfectly legal Doberman is compared to the hens, these laws are ridiculous. You've gotta fight the Man if you want this--backyard eggs with homegrown Swiss chard and Italian parsley served on home-baked wild yeast bread:
Reviewing the laws, it's obvious that the Man wants us to shop in his crappy supermarkets.
4 comments:
I understand the desire to have your own chickens. It's great that many people in our country are rediscovering traditional American folkways. Ironically, California yuppies now embracing backyard chickens as "cool" would probably look down their noses at the Great Depression era folks in red states who still keep chickens (Greatest Generation types who are now in their 80s, take part in gauche activities like Elk's Lodge card games and still drink Budweiser instead of artisan beer -- you know, people who don't find anything remarkable or revolutionary or punk or "guerilla" about growing one's own vegetables. I also understand the responsibility municipalities and counties have for public health. And let's be honest: If everyone in average American neighborhoods were to house a few chickens in their backyard, the results could be less than desirable, less than sanitary and potentially disastrous from a public health perspective. It's no exaggeration to point out that avian flu could potentially thrive in such conditions.
Anonymous,
I appreciate your comments. I hope someday that this blog will be a forum for debate. A few observations:
The “Greatest Generation” abandoned backyard chicken keeping and vegetable gardening after WWII. It was their parents who were the last generation to engage in these activities—this earlier generation was part of the first big wave of folks who settled in Los Angeles in the 1920s, including my own grandparents, who came from the Midwest. This earlier generation kept chickens (including roosters) in their backyards. The "Greatest Generation" left these practical skills behind in favor of convenience foods and consumerism. As for yuppies taking up chickens and vegetable gardening, more power to them. In my neighborhood yuppies hire mow and blow gardeners to maintain their lawns and have no interest in vegetables, let alone chickens.
Now let’s take a closer look at the old geezers quaffing Bud and playing cards at the Elks Lodge. Cards I have no problem with—better than playing video games I suppose. The Bud, I’m afraid will cause me to “look down my nose” at them. One hundred years ago in America there were 2,000 independent breweries, all of them brewing hearty beers that make Bud taste like heavily diluted urine by comparison. Am I a snob, or have our geezers been duped by the advertising industry in laying down their hard earned cash for tasteless piss water? What would the Greatest Generation’s German and Irish immigrant parents say about Bud? I suspect they’d look down their noses along with us here at Homegrown Evolution.
As for the Elks Lodge, mismanagement by the Greatest Generation has brought fraternal organizations in America to the brink of extinction. See our friends at www.burningtaper.blogspot.com for more on this issue.
As for the silliness of vegetable gardening as "punk" or "guerilla", we’re guilty as charged, but unrepentant. True, our Pilipino and Latino neighbors grow vegetables and keep chickens and don't blog about it. On the other hand, believe it or not, other bloggers seem to think that they invented urban backyard vegetable gardening and have gotten proprietary on us to our shock and amazement. We live in a world of marketing, media, and advertising that is inescapable. We see our job as learning how to navigate the “spectacle” as the Situationists used to call it, not to pretend it doesn’t exist.
Lastly, about the biosecurity threat posed by backyard chickens--there is a far greater danger from factory farming. A shed full of thousands of immunosuppressed poultry poses a far greater danger than a couple of hens in the backyard. I suspect that if you look at the spread of bird flu and other poultry diseases you will find that they coincide with shipping routes more than the pathways of migratory wild birds. I’m very suspicious when the issue of biosecurity is bought up, since I believe it’s a way for entrenched factory farm interests and their friends at the USDA to make us all believe that what they do is safe, while behind the scenes they shove downer cows with forklifts into the meat grinder. These same interests destroyed the livelihood of small farmers who now have nothing else to do but drink Bud and play cards at their abandoned Elks Lodge.
Wow, looks I provoked quite a response. On that first point about the Greatest Generation bailing out of the old ways, I'm gonna have to beg to differ. You've obviously never been to my neck of the woods, and I live in a mixed urban-rural metropolitan area of more than a million people. I live in a particular red state (one of the reddest) and the Greatest Generation types (I know quite a few) keep tossin' back that piss water made by Budweiser (marketing dupes, though they may be, I myself am quite the effete beer snob), keep mighty big veggie gardens, can and otherwise store the overflowing produce, have backyard chickens for fresh eggs, harvest pecans from their backyards, harvest peaches from their fruit trees (usually one or two), make homemade sausage (don't ask), bake their own bread, raise their own grass-fed beef and constantly foist this bounty upon us young 'uns. On those other points, I'll have it to give it some thought. Chickens are dirty, though. Don't kid yourself on that point. Doesn't mean I don't like eggs, and that I don't enjoy their flesh covered in batter and deep-fried. Both good and tasty. But let's be "unmediated" and realistic about things, too, shall we? Don't get me wrong. I myself have taken up veggie gardening in the past few years, I'm all for composting, worm composting, localvore behavior, etc. Heck, I even mow my lawn with a push-reel, and getting plenty of strange looks. At the same time, I also don't think it hurts to have a healthy dose of skepticism, or to be able to laugh at our own yuppie foibles (see the infamous satirical Web site, "Stuff White People Like" for more). Trying to pass off gardening as "punk" or "guerilla" (complete with a skull and cross bones) would have to qualify in that "let's laugh at ourselves" territory, I'm afraid.
I've had 5 chickens for a year now, and I don't find them to be any dirtier than my sister's two dogs (one large mix, one small mix). They all poop wherever they please, but chicken poo hoses down into the grass easily and fertilizes the grass/trees quite well. It also doesn't smell nearly as bad a doggie doo. It doesn't smell at all if it is dry. I have an elevated coop with room underneath for the droppings to accumulate and dry until I layer them into the compost or use them to make a batch of liquid fertilizer. I am well aware that we may need to euthanize should an epidemic occur, but that's just life.
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