Today’s the day. We are going to the Green Dragon with some friends to try to score us some backyard chickens. This has been a dream of ours for years and is finally coming together.
I’m new to this whole chicken thing and going to be learning a lot over the next few weeks and months. Stef and A(9) have been reading up on chickens for the last few months. We could have incubated eggs, but in the busyness of life, squandered the opportunity.
Our goal tomorrow is to come home with six, gendered, Roadisland Red chickens…but we will have to see what’s actually available.
A(9)’s Prayer and God’s blessing
The month of May was a month of divine blessing for the Gricks. An Amazon delivery truck parked at the end of my driveway and delivered my dream smoker (affiliate link), but we have no clue who purchased it for us. A few days later Stef mentioned she wanted a Blackstone Grill (affiliate link), after looking them up on Amazon and seeing it would be close to $500 we laughed and said ‘maybe someday.’ The next morning as she went for a run she found the exact Blackstone linked above out for the trash. I drove down, picked it up, and discovered it was in almost perfect condition. This leads A(9) to ask ‘Since dad got his smoker, and mom got her grill, does that mean now we have the money to buy a chicken coop?” We explain that we didn’t have extra money because we hadn’t planned to purchase those items, but said, “you can always pray God provides.”
Well, word got around that my 9-year-old was praying for a chicken coop and I got a text with a picture of a free coup. We loaded it up and brought it home.
Image of the chicken coop 
Coop on the trailer
We needed to do a little work to get it ready. A few boards were rotten out, and it was really dirty. But nothing we couldn’t handle.
Stef also decided to give it a fresh coat of paint, so a trip to Home Depot, and we had a $3 can of Oops paint (deck and fence paint).
Kids playing in the coop 
Sistered boards on the coop 
Stef pressure washing 
Stef prepping to paint 
I(4) painting 
A(9) painting 
C(7)painting 
Stef Painting
Research and Zoning
One of my biggest concerns was making sure we could legally have chickens. I searched google for ‘{Township Name} chickens’ and found the zoning information.
The following criteria shall be utilized when determining the number of domesticated chickens that shall be kept on a nonagricultural lot in a residential zoning district of the Township that is comprised of less than four acres:Twenty thousand square feet is the minimum size lot for the keeping of domesticated chickens.Five chickens are permitted on a lot with 20,000 square feet.One additional chicken shall be permitted for each additional 5,000 square feet of lot size.No more than 24 chickens may be kept on a nonagricultural residential lot less than four acres in size.
Township Ordanance
Okay, so this means we are limited…We have .65 Acres or ~28,000 sq feet) so we can have just over 6.5 chickens. Think we can round up?
Now, what if a neighbor compains? Check out this little gem.
Should a complaint be filed that requires an Animal Control Officer from another governmental agency or other agency other than that of the Township to address a nonagricultural residential lot on which chickens are raised and said complaint leads to the issuance of a citation but not a conviction, said complainant shall be responsible for the reimbursement of any and all costs associated with said complaint should the Township receive a bill for said service from the agency issuing the citation.
Township Ordanance
Legal mumbo-jumbo drives me crazy, but if I read this correct neighbors who whine, could end up with a fine. 🤯🙌
With Stef and A(9) doing research it was time for me to do a little. Did you know there are entire websites dedicated to backyard chickens? That’s a lot of info…I’ll need to come back there later.
Anyway, we hope to keep you posted about how things progress over the next few weeks and months.
Do you have chickens? What advice do you have for us?
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