Following below are excerpts from a local “ordinance” purporting to regulate backyard chickens. Some of it is reasonable (like no rooster) but much is patently absurd and tyrannical…
The City Commission of the City of XXXXX on Oct. 23 approved an ordinance establishing a two-year pilot program to allow residential backyard chickens on up to 15 single-family lots citywide.
The ordinance, adopted on first reading, permits up to three hens per qualifying lot (no roosters), requires applicants to complete a University of Florida/IFAS chicken-keeping course, and creates a permit and annual renewal system. The city set initial application and renewal fees at $75 and $25, respectively.
The ordinance sets basic standards and enforcement steps. Structural requirements include rear-yard coops only (no street-front placement), a minimum five-foot setback from property lines, 20 feet from adjacent dwellings, a coop size limit of 100 square feet and a six-foot maximum height. Hens must have at least four square feet inside the coop and five square feet in the run; predator-resistant materials are required and chicken wire is expressly forbidden. Sanitation rules require feed stored in rodent-proof containers and odor thresholds that would trigger enforcement if an odor persists for 15 consecutive minutes in an hour. The permit is suspended if a homeowner refuses inspection; repeated verified complaints can lead to fines ($100 first violation; $250 second) and revocation. …The ordinance prohibits slaughter and burial on site and forbids sale or distribution of eggs; eggs are limited to household consumption.
Comments: City is not huge but with 25K population, only of 15 yard chicken permits!
Permission to have chickens! Pay city $75! Complete a “chicken-keeping” course!
And WTF do these idiots think their “expressly forbidden” chicken wire is for?
Oh and don’t you dare sell or give away any eggs!
