The Meeting

I would call tonight's meeting a success. The speakers were great, we had a good discussion both for those for and the opposition as well.  The turnout was not huge, but we were glad to see homeowners come and take part.
Kim Allyn, D.V.M., first spoke about her experiences raising her own flock for 4-H with her daughters.  Some key points made were that chickens do not smell, are quiet, easy to keep, do not attract predators that aren't already in the neighborhood.  She spoke about the importance of keeping them well fed and watered as well as keeping their coop clean.  They do not require vaccinations and are relatively easy to care for.  They are also fun animals with personality.  Roosters are not fun, are not quiet and are not required for hens to lay eggs.  To keep chickens safe they need to be protected from predators such as raccoon, foxes, coyotes, dogs, cats, etc. They hens will stay in their coop at night and can be keep in a protected run during the day or have free range, keeping in mind they are vulnerable to predators.  Chickens are friendly but can have their own personalities just like any other pet.  Some are more friendly than others.
Sundari Kraft spoke about her experience in succeeding in changing ordinances an how to handle opposition to Chicken law.  Sundari spoke of the many cities in the metro area that currently have laws allowing chickens, Denver, Littleton, Ft. Collins, Arvada, ...the list was long.  She addressed common concerns such as smell.  Mainly fears about smell come from folks who grew up in rural areas near commercial chicken farms.  This is completely different because there would be an odor from a farm that housed hundreds or thousands of chickens in a small area for profit.  8 chickens on a 5 acre lot would not cause any additional odors.  Noise should not be a concern as the hens would not make near the noise as a barking dog would.  Concerns of predators was a common fear she explained when speaking to people in the Denver area.  Adding chickens to a community does not increase the number of predators.  The ones that are already here will be interested in the new food, but it will not add more predators.  Someone said they had heard concerns that having chickens would scare the horses.  Sundari did not agree that this could be a problem.  In comparison to our popular domestic pets, dogs and cats, chickens are a much cleaner choice.  The likelihood of disease transmission from chicken to human is much less than it is from a dog to a human. Chicken waste is safe to put on a garden for fertilizer however dog and cat waste is toxic to humans.
The attendees had great suggestions as to the language for the covenant change and several volunteered and assigned themselves to a section of the community to get proxies assigned to them for the July vote.
We didn't have a great turn out in terms of numbers, but the turnout we had was great!

Preparing for the meeting

I have two dynamic speakers coming to the meeting which I am very excited about.  I however am not a dynamic speaker by any means.  The only thing I have got going for me is my passion to have this covenant changed and my love for chickens!  I plan to have a great meeting regardless of the number attending.  I will write my introduction spiel, have samples of my proposal available, current covenant regarding poultry,  information on the county zoning regulations.  I will also have a write on flip chart with bullet pointed informative quips on chickens.  Possibly pages hung around the room.  Light refreshments will be served.  I am thinking of having a sign indicating "Opinions welcome, Respect demanded". What do you think?  I need to be prepared for those opposed.  Coop questions will need to be addressed as well as Predators.  Chicken Predators that is.    We will need to discuss placement of coops, built in accordance to architectural committee guidelines.  Notes will need to be taken and distributed.  I have one volunteer to help (not including my husband).  I'll ask her to take notes.  I will also put a jar up for donations as I have already spent around $200.  I won't expect much but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Chicken Pics

COWS?

On my way to work Wednesday I went to the community mail building to see if the flyers I had put up had been taken down.  Much to my surprise they were still there.  Flyers, regardless of the information on them, Lost, Found, Services usually are torn down within a few hours.  It seems some of the residence don't like them even though we have very large boards to hang them on.  I mean very large, there is enough room for the entire community to put up their very own flyer.  On one of my flyers someone had written a little note.  It read "What about cows?  We should be able to have them".  No signature, just that statement.  Well, this comes as no surprise, well maybe a little.  I was expecting a piggyback in for form of goats or perhaps donkeys, but not cows.

I left the flyer up for a few days and then replaced it.  In the back of my mind I'm thinking are we even zoned for cows?  I couldn't imagine our community with cows.  I guess some of the residence may feel that way about chickens but the two don't really compare.  Theoretically you could raise a chicken in your house.  You could never do that with a cow.  I have read about miniature cows that are more sustainable than a normal size cow because they need less feed to harvest. This reminded me that I need to be focused on pushing my agenda and prepared to let others like this "cow" person know that they are free to submit a change to the covenant, however my submission will be for poultry.  At the meeting I will ask for suggestion on my wording for the covenant change.  I would like it to included ducks and possibly turkeys as the county does.  I did have a fleeting thought that if there was a piggyback, and I could convince them to include a caveat that voting either way included a yes for chickens, I might be open to it.  Now I start thinking like a politician.  Yikes.

We are zoned for cows.  Our lots are zoned as RA-1 (Residential Agricultural-One) (Minimum 5 Acres)

From the Elbert County Zoning Regulations, The maximum density is one (1) animal unit per one-half acre. 

One (1) horse, mule or bovine = 1 unit

Five (5) sheep or goats = 1 unit

One (1) swine = 1 unit

One (1) Llama = 1 unit

Two and 1/2 Alpaca = 1 unit

Two (2) ostriches = 1 unit

Four (4) miniature horses = 1 unit

Elbert County Zoning Regulations -141-

Wowzer!  I could have 10 cows.  If I was a goat lover (they are really cute) I could by zoning regulations, have 50 goats.  And wouldn't 10 ostriches be fun?  Or I could mix it up and have a little of each and have a regular petting zoo!  Goodness.  Ok so zoning regulations aren't all practical for a covenant controlled subdivision, even in a rural area.  Five acres is simple not enough land to raise 5 horse on.  Our covenant allows for 4 and those who don't rotate the grazing areas or adequately supplement feed quickly have barren fields.  

Getting back to CHICKENS...

POULTRY, FOWL AND SMALL LIVESTOCK (NONCOMMERCIAL)

Domestic, noncommercial use of poultry or fowl shall include, but not be limited to: chickens, turkeys, pigeons, small birds and ducks.  Small livestock shall include, but not be limited ti: rabbits, chinchillas or similar animals.

RA-1:  A maximum number of fifteen (15) poultry and/or fowl and twenty-five (25) rabbits or other small livestock shall be allowed.

These are the Zoning Regulations pertaining to chickens. In my proposal to change the covenant my original thought was 4 hens, but then I read that having eight chickens is best because it will allow you to build your flock slowly so when the first hens you bought retire, you still have room to buy new ones without having to kill your old gals. Chickens have a life span of around 10 years and only lay eggs for 2 to 3 years.  Having the option of having up to 8 chickens gives you the possibility of always having some layers.

As for rabbits.  I already have more than 25 rabbits on my lot - without trying.  Rabbits are very dense in this area as are deer.  

The Chicken "Agenda"

The invitations have been sent.  The speakers confirmed. Nothing left to do but wait for the people to show up.  Well, not exactly.  Just a bit of background....

I live in a community, an "Equestrian" community of 167 lots, average 5 acres each.  We are located in the High Plains, aka Eastern Plains of Colorado.  We are a semi-rural community, sometimes referred to as a bedroom community as there are many who commute to a larger city for work and merely sleep at there homes.  I live and work in this community.  My husband commutes 1 hour & 15 min. each way to work, 5 days a week, because we love it here.  We live on dirt roads with nearby paved communities.  Each home is different as each lot is different.  Some have homes and outbuildings, some just homes and stables.  We are several buildings on a lot including sheds. Saturday nights you can either hear the loudspeaker from the sports games being played at the high school, or the loud music from the house down the road, sometimes nothing at all.

There is one very unique thing about our covenant controlled community.  As mentioned we are an equestrian community.  I guess that is to advertise that we are horse friendly.  The entire county is horse friendly.  Regardless, that is the statement on the big sign as you drive in to our subdivision.  The community encourages horses.  That being said, we do not own any horses.  We have dogs.  Two wonderful active dogs that love it out here.  We lived in the city and a backyard was simple too small for them so we bought them a dog park.  Our five acres has a fenced in area of around an acre and the rest is protected by an invisible fence buried in the ground around the border of the five acres.  We love the horses.  The pass by on the bridal trails that border our property and we wave at the riders.  We enjoy seeing the new horses come in as well as the occasional colt that is born, although that is a rare sight here.  Next door to us there is a delightful miniature horse who entertains us to no end with his antics.  Much to our delight two weeks ago he gained a new friend and now there are two.  My granddaughter loves mimicking them and I love everything about them.

Our HOA was formed in the early many years ago and very few changes have been made to our covenants since the original ones were set.  Regarding domestic animal,s we are allowed 4 horses, up to 4 dogs, cats, etc.  No donkeys, cattle, sheep, any livestock really or poultry.   This county is fairly active in 4-H and LLama/Alpacas are very popular as are goats for projects.  Not allowed here. OK.  I can deal with that, after all we only have 5 acres.  But how does poultry fit into the equation?  One could argue this a few ways, and many have tried.  Known as "The Chicken Wars", this issue has been brought to the table long before my time here as a resident.  One Chicken War ended up in Court costing one resident over $4000.00.  Not to mention the fight it caused between homeowners...but that is another post.

The reason for my blog is to document the journey to change our covenants to allow poultry.  Our County zoning regulations currently allow for poultry on our lots so it is not a matter of changing county ordinance, just our HOA covenants.  As I go up against this I have to wonder if it would be easier to change a county ordinance.

I have set up a meeting for the residents to attend to learn about chickens.  As you will read in another post there seems to be some fears about having them in our community so I am bringing in a local veterinarian as well as a local author who is an advocate for changing city ordinances to allow urban homesteading.  The invitations have been sent.  I've received a few emails in support of my effort, which is awesome.  I have a gut feeling that this meeting will be just the beginning.  Although the timing for this was planned specifically for the upcoming July HOA meeting in which I will be submitting a request to change the covenant, this is a big challenge, one I expect to be working on for quite some time.  I have planned this so I will have time in June to attempt to meet more homeowners and possibly collect proxies from those who don't attend meetings.  So much to do...