Chickens

On April 4th, 2008 we brought home 15 chicks from my son's kindergarten classroom. They had hatched eggs as part of their farm studies, and we were asked if we would be willing to provide homes for some. The photo on the left is what they looked like when we brought them home! Cute, fuzzy little yellow things! We have since found a home for the roosters....they spent their days fighting and arguing with each other, and we didn't have the space to let them get away from each other, so we found someone who already had chickens on his farm, and they moved there, to run loose and go wherever they pleased. Perfect opportunity for them! We are left with the 9 hens, who have just moved from our garage and into our barn. We plan to keep them to lay eggs for us, and just to watch...I've always wanted a few chickens, just never taken the plunge! This was the opportunity!

My husband was all for the idea, in fact, he wanted even more, and began constructing an 8 by 12 foot chicken barn. We got the side and end walls up, and the trusses up, then it sat. I will include a photo.... we didn't need a building permit, as it was under 120 square feet. I was thrilled with the idea of this! Quite large for the number of chickens we had, but our plan was to fully insulate it, and I thought I could also house my rabbits in there in the wintertime, and that size would leave plenty of room for the hutches as well! Looks like that thought has been poofed.... the county zoning guy showed up, and we need a permit. Only, the two places suitable for us to put it, we can't. Too close to the pond behind our house, or too close to the road. Our back yard...the whole thing is too close to the pond..... we just aren't set up to put it anywhere else....without taking fences down, which we don't want to do. So, what you see in the picture will most likely be taken apart...material used for something different...something MUCH smaller, that we will not need a zoning permit for. 32 square feet. The size of a sheet of plywood. If we go bigger, we need a permit. So, we will probably be reducing our hen number as well, to accomodate the size coop we're going to have to make. I'm really bummed....seriously.