We had chickens for about 2 years on and off illegaly till one of our neighbors complained, and the city police came by, and we had to get rid of all our chickens that same day??? During that time period, we had individually asked each neighbor in our area if they cared if we had chickens, because if they didn't mind, we were interested in getting some, and they would be welcome to our extra eggs. Everyone seemed quite excited. But someone went behind our backs and complained to the city, so we had to get rid of them. I felt bad about it because we knew we weren't in accordance with the current code, and I also felt badly that someone felt like they had to complain to the authorities, instead of just talking to us directly to see if there was a better solution. Sad memories. The most annoying thing about it was how the police treated us, interrogating us as if we were criminals hiding some horrible secret, but the officer warmed up once he realized I was going to be honest with him and wasn't going to lie about the situation.
Well just THREE MONTHS after that whole drama with the police, they LEGALIZED owning up to 5 laying hens in Dallas City Limits as long as chickens are kept FENCED IN and their coop is 10 feet from any lawn boundary. We celebrated by picking up some laying hens that very evening!
So, we've had chickens again for the past year in our back yard. None of our neighbors have complained about them back there...but then I guess they can complain all they want now that they are legal, right? No one can say boo to us now, right? Wrong!
Right now our backyard is really really muddy. So it's time for us to replant grass. We are also planning an entire backyard overhaul:
New grass
New patio,
new garden...(no more green house, just a bunch of freshly built grow boxes)
terraced blueberries, grape arbor
and as much edible landscaping as we can afford to put in, etc, etc.
So in the middle of all this hullabaloo, we decided to move the chickens into the front yard. Scott created a super cheap pvc pipe and wire chicken coop for only $19.00. It's not the prettiest thing, but it's not too bad looking either.
We've had the chickens out there for only a few days. It's been pretty amusing to watch people walk by our house and then stop...and STARE AND STARE!! Sometimes their faces are amused, other times people's expressions are horrified. We've gotten some good laughs watching people's reactions to our chickens. The dogs like it, anyway. ;)
Then today, the Dallas Code Enforcement Officer arrived on our front porch. I laughingly call him the "Sheriff of Nottingham" because he is so loyal and dedicated in his job of taxing and fining small infractions of our city code, instead of taking care of the bigger things that REALLY matter. I know laws and codes have their place, but this fellow should be paid a bonus because he takes his job VERY seriously!!! I've heard numerous stories about how he is quite dedicated in persecuting little old ladies who can't park their cars straight. We've seen this fellow several times in the past. One time he came by, warning us that if we didn't move our car we'd have to pay a hefty fee. He said that you can never leave a car in the same place for more than 3 days in a row. He said that he drives by our house EVERY DAY, but the car is always parked in the exact same place! I explained to him the reason why: my husband works at night! Come back at night, I told him, and you'll see the car isn't there! He looked pretty sheepish about that one, and apologized quite nicely.
So, this time around, he came to tell us we were breaking the law by having our chickens in the front yard.
Scott asked where in the law did it say that? It just says to have the coop 10 feet from the boundary line. We read the law, we fought for the law to get passed, we are in keeping with the code, and will take very good care to make sure that our chickens stay cooped up far away from our neighbors.
The officer says his Boss is INTERPRETING the law to mean that you can't have the chickens in your front yard...unless you have a fence....and that you shouldn't have them in the front yard at all, so he wanted us to move them to the backyard right away.
So Scott is in the process of communicating with the city manager. We'll see what he says, and hopefully we can keep the chickens in the front yard at least long enough to get the grass planted in back before the chickens eat all the seed and make the mud worse.
We'll see what happens!
If enough citizens make a big stink, they could take away our right to have chickens again. I should probably attend the city council meetings so I can be more in tune with the city management and fight for those laws and codes that preserve our freedom. I mean honestly...chickens!!! Isn't there more important matters for them to spend their time and money on?!?
I feel bad that some of our neighbors get so upset with us for all of our crazy efforts to live more green, environment-friendly, clean-eating, low-energy, self-sustaining lives. I know it really irks our neighbors that our yard is messy and our children are noisy...it is at times like this that I really long for a big house in the country where no one would care WHAT we did with our little piece of land!!! Ooooh.....the ambitions we have that are so frustrated by the stilted, limiting, hampering suburban lifestyle!
Don't they want our big families who are "overpopulating" the planet to stay off their grid?
