Know Your Codes

"Really? You're allowed to have chickens?"

I can't even tell you how many times we've gotten that reaction when we say that we keep chickens. But, whether you can keep chickens, or other animals, is entirely up to the municipal codes in your area. Sometimes, it varies greatly even between cities that blend right into each other. For example, in Salt Lake County the rules about keeping chickens vary widely and sometimes incomprehensibly.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

In Salt Lake City, we are allowed to keep up to 15 chickens (no roosters) so long as we have a coop that provides at least 2sqft per bird and the coop is located at least 25 ft from any structure inhabited by people. If we have at least 50 ft from any inhabited structure, we can have up to 25 chickens. 

On the other hand, in unincorporated Salt Lake County, how many chickens you can have depends upon your zoning and can only be a maximum either 3, 5, or 8 birds in total. 

In West Valley City, chickens are classified as "household pets" and the city allows for a total of 4 pets - so 1 dog, 3 chickens or 2 cats, 1 rabbit, 1 chicken, and so on.

Holladay has determined that the number of various animals depends upon your lot size. If your lot is under 10,000 sqft, no 'livestock' animals are allowed, between 10,000 sqft and 1/2 acre you can have up to 3 varieties of livestock animals with a maximum of  "10 rabbits, 25 chickens, 25 pheasants; 5 ducks, 5 turkeys, 5 geese; or 10 pigeons". 

The moral of the story here is that municipal codes vary GREATLY. We recently considered a move to the Portland, OR area where you are allowed a certain number of pigs and goats in the city (sheep too, if I remember correctly), whereas, here in Salt Lake City, we are not allowed to have anything with hooves inside city limits.

So, how do you find out the codes in your area? Ask! You may be able to find the answer online, but don't trust message boards or blogs - even this one! Codes are subject to change at any time. So, instead, go to your city's website and then to the department of Animal Services or Animal Control. Or you could even just Google "[your city] Animal Services". If the answer can't be found online, call your local Animal Control office and ask if keeping chickens is allowed and what the guidelines are. In some cities permits are required, so make sure you have the appropriate permit before you bring home your girls!

Also of note, be sure you know what the code is for selling your products. In Salt Lake City, for example, we are very lucky to have very agriculture-friendly codes. We are allowed to sell our eggs, feathers, chickens, garden produce, honey, and much more. In unincorporated Salt Lake County, on the other hand, it is expressly forbidden to sell eggs or anything else relating to your chickens - they are to be kept for personal use only!

What are the codes like in your area? I'd love to know how different areas compare!

Hello World!

Welcome to our blog!

We are a family of four making our way from city life to farm life, which we will document here. So, as our first post, we've outlined the state of our tiny farm as it stands now, where we plan to go in the immediate future, and where we hope to end up

Where we are now:

1/4 acre rented property in Salt Lake City, Utah. We currently garden about 1/16 of an acre as well as keeping chickens. Up to this point we have mostly sold eggs to our friends and neighbors. We have just started keeping French Angora rabbits with our first one that we brought home this summer.

Where we're going in the immediate future:

Rabbits:

We are trying to work out how to pick up two more rabbits in Arizona next month, and are looking at one in Colorado. If we were to have all four of these, we would have the basis for a good beginning breeding program. At that point we would start breeding and making our adorable little fluff-balls available for sale! We would also hope to start selling the angora fiber.

Fiber:

We also recently acquired quite a bit of raw wool which we are working on getting into the various stages of preparation so that we can start to sell that too. We hope to sell it as raw washed wool, carded wool, combed wool, and spun into various yarns. This wool also happens to be rather dark colored, so we're also going to experiment with over-dying it and see how that goes.

Chickens:

We have currently maxed out our permit for the number of chickens we can keep, so our next step is to start thinning our flock so that we can add more egg colors! We are also hoping to set up several recurring orders - that is people who will have a regular order of a dozen eggs per week or every other week.

Business:

Currently we are both working full-time (and frequently overtime) regular jobs and working our mini (micro...nano...) farm on the side. We'd like to get to where one of us can either drop to part-time at our regular job, or even better, quit altogether!

The end goals:

Location:

Our ultimate goal is to move back to the Pacific Northwest where The Husband is originally from and the vast majority of his family lives. Utah is a beautiful place, but Washington will always be home. Once there, we'd like to start with a minimum 5 acres with the possibility to grow later.

Animals:

At this point, we see ourselves as developing into a fiber farm. We'd like to expand our angoras, as well as adding sheep and/or alpacas. In addition to that, we would also continue to keep chickens, and also add animals for meat and milk for our own family.

Diversification:

We hope to be able to offer classes and workshops covering nearly everything we do - spinning, fiber prep, knitting, chicken keeping, rabbit care, gardening, canning, and anything else that we can think of! If we have the space, we'd also like to be able to host events and weddings and possibly add a farm-to-table restaurant!



So there you go - where we are, where we're headed, and where we want to end up. Again, welcome to our blog, we look forward to seeing you around!