{adorable baby chicky photograph by Julie Persons}
Anyway, my post was about chickens & it will go up when I actually write it! We're thinking about getting some. Our main impetus for thinking chickens was the tick problem we have at our new house. They were CRAZY this past Fall and were all over us & our kids. (The poor baby had one embedded in his ear and it took 20 mins of screaming & crying for me to get the thing's head out of his ear.) After speaking with an expert, we learned that chickens are amazing with pest control. (We're not too excited about using insecticides on our property where we are planning a veggie garden and drink well water.)
BUT-- Sadly. right now in Fairfax Country, where I live, the law states that you can only own chickens if you have 2+ acres. (You can have 64 chickens on 2 acres... crazy) But you can't have any chickens if you have less than 2 acres. There's a group of us who are working to have the law changed so that home owners can have pet HENS (not roosters) on their property if they have less than 2 acres. (And not a crazy number like 64!!;) We have an acre, btw. So... tonight, there is a meeting at the Fairfax Government Center to meet and plead the chicken case. We're collecting signatures for a petition and today's the day, so pretty pretty PLEASE sign this if you're in Fairfax County!!
PETITION HERE
Thank you so much!!
Pretty pics and an actual post to follow!
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12 comments:
Good luck! I hope you are able to get them. I had 6 that I raised for a while, but had to do it out of town because of laws too. I had Rhode Island Reds and New Hampshire Reds. I loved having them and children LOVE them, they´re a lot of fun and pretty low maintenance, and the eggs! They´re nothing like what you get at the grocery store...the ones our hens would lay were so big you couldn´t close the egg carton!
Some of those chicken coops look good enough to live in myself! I have also been wondering where Brooke is going to put her lucky chickens.
Best of luck! I live in NJ in a very wooded area, and I know several families who have done this for tick control, and it works amazingly! No pesticides, it really is a great option for the environment. Although recently, a friend lost her chickens to a hungry fox who got into the coop. Do your best to keep those chicks safe!
Good luck! I hope they agree and allow hens on smaller properties.
So many cities and towns have codes that allow a certain number of hens--even in large cities like Seattle where lot sizes can be very small (i.e. .10 or .15 acre). A two acre minimum is way too restrictive.
Hi Lauren,
I live in Fairfax County and I happily signed.
Good luck!
Wendy-
Hoping for chickens for you!
We don't even have huge trees, but a huge field and nature preserve near our house. The ticks are SO bad for the first few months of spring, that it is truly nightmarish. Our dog ends up with them all over, embedded in her ears, I've had them crawling on me (and this is after I've had a glass of wine on our deck, not NEAR a tree!)and it's AWFUL. Had I known, I would have just gotten chickens because all of the chemicals are just as evil.
Wishing you chicken luck!
All the best..:)
Android Developer
Chickens are great pest controllers so I hope you're able to get some. As for the ticks we live in the country in a forest and they've been bad the last two years. We hike a lot in the woods with our golden and don't use any bug control on him or us. Instead we rub ourselves and golden down with bounce dryer sheets and then tuck them in our back pockets....no bugs. We also get black flies in the spring that bite and hurt and it keeps those nasty things away, try it.
XXX
Debra~
Lauren- When we bought our home I inquired about Guinea hens for tick control and was told it was against the zoning here. Chickens are not allowed in my suburban neighborhood, either.
Nearby my home, the city of Albany recently had a VERY close vote and almost allowed hens - I hope it will come up for another vote and win next time.
Good luck on the chicken front!
Loretta
...chickens and tick control would be a great post idea when my new blog Eco Happy launches! I love win-win solutions.
Good luck, I really hope you're successful. I live in Wichita and we can have up to 4 hens without a permit or 5-12 with a $25 permit. This rule applies to any size lot.
Hope common sense prevailed!
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