Presenting Your Case To Raise Chicken At Home

In my last blog post, I wrote about how to confront with the restriction when planning to raise chicken at your home. Some places do not allow you to keep chicks due to certain local by laws.

If you are really determined to have your own chicken at home, you can present your case at your local planning commission meeting.

It is always best to go to any necessary meeting well prepared and organized. Try to anticipate any questions or concerns that may be asked by the committee and have good responses for them.

At some point during the meeting, be prepared to compromise on certain issues such as the size of the chicken coop, the number of birds allowed, conditions on cleanliness etc.

If you need help, check with other people in your community who have experience in local government administration. They may have a better understanding on how things are done in your community.

Get their tips and suggestions on how to approach the officials who have the power to amend a law or grant a variance.

How far do you want to go to present your case so you can raise chicken at home?

Some people may want to go all the way. If you can afford it, you may hire an attorney to represent you. Most of the time, home owners will want to handle it on their own if they can.

If possible, get the support from other people who think it is a good idea to have chicken in their own backyard. A concerted group request at the local town meeting carries more weight and zoning codes may be amended to fulfill their request.

You may also get support from farmers, poultry leader, veterinarian, home science school teacher to speak on your behalf. They can talk about the benefit of raising chickens at home.

Another approach you can take is to draft a proposed law or ordinance in regards to raising chicken at home and get people to sign a petition in support of it. A few hundred signatures on the draft can go a long way during the committee meeting.