We are finally progressing on the chicken ordinance in Greeley. Britton and I are on a Greeley ad-hoc committee to make it a little easier for people to have chickens in Greeley. I am coming to the conclusion that the only thing “easier” to having chickens in Greeley is the number. The number of chickens one can have in residential areas will likely increase from 1 per 1/10 of an acre of land (that is all that it says on the books currently about chickens) to up to 6 per residential house with a whole lot more to say on that subject.

For instance:
There will now be a requirement/regulation
-on the size of the coop
-on the size of the run or yard
-on the keeping of the food (in a metal, rat proof container)
-on the color of the coop
-on keeping the coop predator-proof
-on the distance of the coop from property lines
-on closing up the coop at night
-that no roosters are allowed
-that they must be kept away from geese and wild ducks and their excrement
-that slaughtering must be done out-of-sight of neighbors
-that only single-family residences can have chickens

and it wouldn’t be government unless it had, of course, a requirement to apply for a permit whereby they will have an “inspector” come by to tell you if you have met all of the said requirements. To me, I feel like we have lost a lot in the compromise. It’s not that I don’t agree with many of the points, it’s just that it’s a LOT of freaking rules. To raise chickens. Come on. Chickens! They do not take a whole lot to figure out and if you mess up and a predator eats them or you have other problems you will be the first to find out and fix it. As for neighbor complaints about smell and noise, these are already covered in the existing animal codes.

I am for barrier regulation when we are trying to help reduce major problems in society, not when we are trying to promote a positive aspect (some may argue that chickens are a negative but to me, the positives tip the scale disproportionately in the favor of the girlies). By barriers I mean that we are making it somewhat more difficult to have chickens than before instead of easier. Like I said before, the only thing we won in the compromise is the numbers of chickens one can have and the fact that most of these rules are mostly common sense. But still. It’s the idea behind it. Would you like to be told that in order to raise your dog, someone would have to come look at your backyard, make sure the dog house was the right color or where to store your dog food? It just reeks of superiority complex (or job security?) -even in the most harmless of matters. I mean, how long have people been raising chickens in society? Do we really need all these rules? Yet again, it seems, that everything I want to do is illegal.

Well, enough of my rant. We are happy to keep our girls and probably come January we will schlep on over to the city of Greeley’s office to file for a permit for our chickens, wait for an inspector, and hope that they grant us approval  (oh, please city, please won’t you let us keep our pets?). Before that time however, the city of Greeley and the city council will be voting on this and maybe making changes to the proposed ordinance. I will keep you posted.  And if you are around Greeley, tomorrow, I will be on Pirate 104.7 again at 7:30am talking about it. You can stream the show here.

And here’s a funny video of the chickens playing in the snow of our yard: