Submitted by Brudesandwich t3_10i05kl in jerseycity
There is local urban farm in the Heights that sells eggs locally: Urban Quack.
Since owning chickens is legal in JC and with the current price of eggs and inflation, anyone opened their own chicken coops and sell the eggs?
Slow your roll, my man... before people get ideas and don't bother looking into the details, there are several legal requirements that must be satisfied before someone can legally keep chickens in JC. Here is a link to the municipal code section dealing with chickens:
https://library.municode.com/nj/jersey_city/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=CH90AN_ARTIIBIPO
Basically, you need a license, and a chicken coop can not be within 25 feet of another structure in which people reside, work, or get together. Given the housing density in JC, that proximity restriction would disqualify most people from being able to keep chickens.
Those laws don’t apply if your coop is either on a crosswalk or a bike lane though.
This is the JC way!
You can definitely hear roosters from various parts of JC in the morning. So someone's got birds in their backyard. Likely more than one.
I don't think there's any enforcement. There's meetups of urban dwellers who do it in Brooklyn (not sure the legality there). It's been a hipster thing for years.
The lack of enforcement does not mean that it is legal. In JC, keeping poultry is definitely much more regulated than in NYC. The regulations in NYC with regards to chicken are quite lenient: there are no restrictions on quantity or space/distance (except for poultry markets, which must keep 25 feet) - the only restriction in NYC is no roosters. As for other poultry, duck and geese are not allowed. Compare that to JC, which has regulations dictating distance restrictions, amount of chicken that can be kept, and licensing requirements. But, of course, this being JC, there is ZERO enforcement, so there’s that.
How does the chicken coop against low fidelity’s backyard get around this?
They have a license and meet all the requirements apparently. I remember reading that a neighbor may give written consent to allow it thought i can no longer find where i got the info from so don't quote me. They operate well within the law apparently, they have been open and selling eggs for years.
That thing about getting approval from neighbors is actually laid out in the municipal code, but only with regards to pigeons.
I’m not sure about the chicken coop behind LoFi, but it could be that it was there before the municipal code was enacted or modified, so it would have been "grandfathered in" as is the norm with many other regulations.
I ask because if you’ve ever been sat in the backyard you’ll notice plenty of mice/rats running around in the bushes at the end of the yard and it’s clearly a result of them being attracted by whatever the chickens are being fed on the other side of the fence. I can’t imagine being okay with that as a neighbor if you’re trying to run a business…
Honestly, I have NO IDEA how they are getting away with it. If it is that bad that mice and rats are running around, I am really surprised that LoFi is putting up with it. But, what you describe is precisely why people are often not cool with chickens and other farm livestock kept within city limits or in close proximity to where they live. And, by the way, I say that as someone who 100% would love to keep some animals. Growing up, my paternal grandpa ran a small farm and so I got to spend a lot of time around chickens, rabbits, and pigs. Those are some fond memories, but I totally get why people would be opposed to chickens living close by.
Again the one link linked is dated in 1978. Around 2011 the city council was revising the ordinance to be more lenient. I don't know of that passed but that's the "law" I was thinking of.
Secondly, the coop behind LoFi has only been there a few years. They been around since 2012. A year after the article I posted
The municode site includes all changes, including very recent ones. I’m not sure how they do it, but they manage to publish ordinances and code changes before any other source I have seen. The most recent changes to the published JC municipal code are from last month (December 2022) - the only relatively recent changes dealing with regulations around chicken are from 2015, and it's only stuff about the cost of licenses. The council may have had debates or discussions about chicken regulations back in. 2011, but no code changes were adopted.
Just found the news article about it from 2011: https://www.nj.com/hudson/2011/01/city_of_jersey_city_encouragin.html
>Current zoning rules permit residents to keep fewer than 50 chickens no less than 25 feet away from any structure used for human habitation.
>Although it's one "one of the most lenient chicken laws" in the state, according to Marione-Stanton, the city wants to make it even easier to keep and raise the little cluckers.
>The proposed revision would allow residents to keep one to seven chickens within 25 feet of a neighbor's property as long as the neighbor signs an affidavit of consent. Anyone wishing to house eight to 20 chickens would have to keep them 40 feet away from neighbors.
I don't know if the laws have been updated or if this was passed but I would assume it did if the coop behind Lo-Fi is able to operate.
Just found the news article about it from 2011: https://www.nj.com/hudson/2011/01/city_of_jersey_city_encouragin.html
>Current zoning rules permit residents to keep fewer than 50 chickens no less than 25 feet away from any structure used for human habitation.
>Although it's one "one of the most lenient chicken laws" in the state, according to Marione-Stanton, the city wants to make it even easier to keep and raise the little cluckers.
>The proposed revision would allow residents to keep one to seven chickens within 25 feet of a neighbor's property as long as the neighbor signs an affidavit of consent. Anyone wishing to house eight to 20 chickens would have to keep them 40 feet away from neighbors.
I don't know if the laws have been updated or if this was passed but I would assume it did if the coop behind Lo-Fi is able to operate.
Yes I know of the policies on it and while we are very dense it doesn't make it impossible for people to have their own chicken coop if they have a backyard, especially areas outside of downtown. And I could be mistaken but I recall reading that if a person has written consent from their neighbors approving the coop if the 25 ft limit cannot be met. The link you posted dates the ordinance is dated from 1978, I recall the city council updated or were looking into updating the ordinance to promote more urban farms within JC.
I've been thinking about it. But I wonder if any money is actually saved. Like growing tomatoes in the summer, they're actually much cheaper to buy. And yet, chicken are so cute 😁
(saw this piece on PIX11 News. Funny reminds me of when I was little in JC. Many people would get fresh eggs delivered to their doorstep from a NJ farm each week. At Easter time the farm would sale little live chicks. We would set up pens in our yards for them to run around. After about a week kids would get bored with them, and if they survived (sad) they would be returned to the farm. Sort of like a rental in disguise farmer probably knew they would be returned lol)
New Jersey
Rent The Chicken service brings hens, fresh eggs to your own backyard
by: Jim Vasil
Posted: Jan 19, 2023 / 05:22 PM EST Updated: Jan 19, 2023 / 07:14 PM EST
MORRIS COUNTY, N.J. (PIX11) – You might not ever figure out whether the chicken or the egg came first, but it doesn’t take a philosopher to see the price of eggs has flown the coop.
“Now with the price of eggs, having your own guaranteed eggs in your backyard is great,” said chicken farmer Marlena Schilke.
One solution people are turning to? Renting chickens.
Rent The Chicken is a nationwide company, with affiliates all over the United States and Canada.
(http://www.rentthechicken.com/)
Schilke is the Northern New Jersey affiliate.
It starts with a call to the company. From there, you get set up with your local affiliate. Packages with everything you need to care for the birds start around $600 for the season, which begins in April and goes through October.
Chickens are loud and smelly. Please don't burden your neighbors with that shit. With the feed, time commitment, and eventual fluctuations of the price of eggs, it's not the golden investment you think it is.
Not everything has to be solely an investment. The idea behind allowing chicken coops was to enable sustainability for people.
Sustainability is great, but the fundamentals for a chicken operation are not present in the city. Are you gonna truck in the feed regularly from miles away? Are you going to use expensive city water for them to drink and get cleaned? What if they kept getting stolen or killed and you decide to abandon the coop? just because you bring the animals closer to the dinner table doesn't necessarily equate to it being more environmentally friendly.
You don't need to drive miles away to get them food lol. Plus, the chicken coop doesn't need to be in the dozens. One hen can lay about 100-200 eggs a year. Keeping under 3 hens won't be a drastic change and there are already people who have chickens in JC but youd never notice. because of the density of this city majority of properties wouldn't make the threshold so it's not like we will suddenly have hundreds of chicken coops around
I haven't been to every single block of JC, but I can't think of a neighborhood where you can put a chicken coop far away for people not to notice. I definitely noticed and heard about complaints.
It's not about the distance for the feed. If you're not growing the feed on site, someone is going to use a vehicle for some part of the delivery whether it's you or someone else.
You can feed chickens compost made at home so no need to even order or buy food just for them. The Heights, Greenville, and Westside have plenty of homes with backyards.
That's not true. You're not always going to have table scraps to feed them.
And again, the enjoyment of your backyard is greatly diminished when there's a chicken coop just over the fence. The neighborhoods you mentioned don't have backyards more than a maybe 200 sq feet if at that. Neighbors will hear them and smell them.
Which is why the ordinance says you can have a coop if you're neighbors give written consent.
What if they initially consent and then decide that they're bothered by it? What if they move and you get new neighbors?
I would assume you have to get their consent as well?.
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Actually the primary reason for egg prices going as high as they have and continuing even when inflation is going down is because of the bird flu.
We have lost tens of millions of egg laying hens in the last year.
PICHICONCACA t1_j5c38v7 wrote
Given the history of this thread, I don’t trust any of you with keeping chicken. You’re gonna cause another pandemic.