We've been looking for an acreage and found one with enough land but it has a stupid covenant with it that won't allow Chickens! We can have 2 horses, 2 dogs and 3cats but no other animals. I'm wondering if these covenants can be changed or amended or allow a waiver for us to have Chickens? This is an acreage after all we're out in the country and I think there are 6 or 7 other homes out on this area so it's not a big subdivision or anything. Does anyone have any idea on this?

Check with the zoning dept. regulating the area. It might be allowed to change with the permission of other property owners or they might tell you why chickens are specifically prohibited.

Is it an ordinance or a covenant? If it's a sub-division covenant, it depends on how the covenants and restrictions of the sub- division are written. In my sub-division, a covenant can be changed or amended with 51% vote of the homeowners. I'm sure it will vary from HOA to HOA.

If it's an ordinance, some municipalities do offer variances to an ordinance, each municipality will vary on how to apply for and receive a variance.

Your best bet is to contact the powers that be before you buy the home and query the matter directly to them.

Since it is acreage - it most likely not a deed restriction. The listing Realtor should know if it is a deed restriction, or county ordinance....or HOA rule.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: real estate lady,

Okay, this gets a little complicated so bear with me. As I understand the situation, the property in question is an acreage with similar properties in the area so it would be my guess that it was a subdivision established with restrictive covenants so all present and future owners would be assured that their investment would be protected long after the initial sales of the lots in question.

This is a completely different situation than ordinances or planning and zoning issues which are imposed from the outside usually govertmental entities or a HOA which, itself, is a different animal all by itself.

A title company can provide you with a copy of the Restrictive Covenants which do run with the land. It will identify all of the parcels of land covered by the covenants. It may be possible to amend the covenants by getting the approval of 100% of the parcel owners but that amendment will most likely require the services of an attorney and may be expensive.

I can give you some insight into the reason for prohibition against chickens from personal experience. DH and I used to live on 20 acres (part of old family homestead); many people started moving "to the country" in the 1970's. We called them "City Old MacDonalders" if you remember the nursery tale/song.

Some nice individuals bought the place across the road from us (30 acres) and promptly bought a dozen hens and a rooster for that "fresh eggs every day feeling." Don't know if they ever actually killed one of them for Sunday dinner as we never asked and didn't want to know. The chicken coop they built was a joke and they also had seven dogs running at large.

The chickens, not being stupid, promptly decided our 20 acres were a lot safer and more peaceful and moved over one by one. At first it was cute, those hens with 16 little chicks following her around.

Then those 16 chicks grew up times 12 and had 16 chicks themselves and so on. Within less than a year and a half, they were destroying our lawn, garden, roosting in our barn, sheds, shop and everywhere else they could find.

We also had the unpleasant experience of disposing of the bodies of those killed on the road as the neighbors would have just left them as roadkill until they rotted away.

Talking to the neighbors did no good. She insisted that only the first 12 hens and rooster were hers (and they were probably all dead by then) and that all the others were ours as they had been born at our place!

We probably should have just shot them as soon as they started coming over to our place but neither DH or I have much of a stomach for killing living animals. Finally, after they reached over 200 in number, we had a chicken round-up with pallets borrowed from a poultry slaughter house and simply gave them to the company knowing they would be killed. It was a most awful time that made me sick to my stomach and still bothers me to this day.

The bottom line is that people usually have an emotional or financial investment in horses, dogs and cats; not so with chickens. And chickens are a lot more difficult to contain and catch once they have escaped.

That covenant is there for a very good reason and, if I were a property owner being asked to eliminate it, I would never agree. And, if you should buy this property, you may find yourself grateful that it exists. Hope this is helpful to some who want to move to the country....

PS. Most people think of a subdivision as the city type we know now days but subdivisons have been around a lot longer than that. Our land was part of a subdivision platted in 1907 in 10 acre lots and, no, it did not have Restrictive Covenants.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Idaho Resident,

Idaho Resident-
Good to know!! Didn't actually consider all that so I'm glad you brought that personal insight into it! DH did call the original owner of the land who is in charge of the covenant and he did tell us we could have chickens as long as they did not become an issue and caused the other homes to complain! We'd of course get that in writing before we bought but in the meantime hopefully we'll find a place without covenants! And I will be more respectful of my neighbors when I do have the chickens I PROMISE!!! Thanks!!

Had you gotten a copy of the covenants to see how they were written (in regards to the restriction)? You'll want to be sure your writen permission will hold up before you take the original owners word on it. Would hate for you to go through the trouble of finding out the hard way. FWIW as a general rule and in most areas covenants/restrictions usually supercede county/city ordinances as governing documents in the eyes of the courts.

wow - that's interesting about the chickens.....having always lived in the city, i would have never given it much thought...

"2stayor2go," Glad my insight on Restrictive Covenants and, more importantly, the chicken issue was helpful to you. One word of caution, if these are actually Restrictive Covenants filed of record, NO ONE can give you written permission to violate them.

Well, actually anyone can give anyone else written permission to do anything they want but it won't be worth the proverbial "piece of paper it's written on." I think what the person was trying to say was that if you had chickens and kept them properly contained, ect., it was highly unlikely that anyone would try to enforce the covenants against you.

However, please know that you can't get a waiver or exemption or anything similar from ANYONE in the case of Restrictive Covenants which run with the land in a subdivision. I am glad to know that IF you get a place and decide to have chickens, that you will take better care of them.

As for "hopefully" finding a place without Restrictive Covenants, I decided to post a few other experiences similar to the chicken situation for those who might be interested. Doing it mostly from a humorous point of view but, also, it might make you have second thoughts about those Restrictive Covenants!

Okay, a disclaimer! We have since moved from our 20 acres and no longer live by these neighbors and I'm posting this as a humorous recollection of living in a area without Restrictive Covenants just for the enjoyment of people reading these posts.

Feel free to skip on down to the next post if not interested; if you didn't read my chicken post above, you might want to check it out before reading this one.

Well, the people who moved onto the 30 acres across the road from us also brought about 12-15 horses with them. When I said they were nice" I wasn't being sarcastic. They were nice people, just a bit delusional when it came to country living.

The 30 acres were fenced on the perimeter but they had taken down the gate to make a driveway to their house and NEVER put the gate back up. Being good neighbors, we went over to help them unload the horses and I commented that we could help hold some of them while they put a make-shift barrier where the gate used to be. (DH and I were a litttle baffled why they had gotten rid of it in the first place.)

She informed us that a gate wasn't necessary as her horses were "chalk-trained" meaning that they wouldn't cross a chalk line and she had drawn one across the end of the driveway. Since I was raised on a very large cattle ranch, I had never HEARD of such a thing but these were city people with city horses so I figured they knew something I didn't know.

Over the next 2-3 months, we helped them round up their horses at least a dozen times from the road in a half mile direction either way. One day, we saw they had put up a gate. We never commented on it one way or the other, and neither did they.

About the same time as the chicken invasion, we started having a flock of geese come to play and bathe when we flood irrigated. Now, these were not the wild geese who often landed in our pastures on their flight patterns north and south but, rather, domestic geese who can be really mean and cause injury when they peck.

Followed them back home to a "good old boy" who owned 10 acres next to the Old MacDonald neighbors and were quite surprised to find they came from his place. Talked to him and he said that they weren't his; guess who had bought them? So talked to her and she said, yes, she had bought them but "if they wouldn't stay home, she washed hands of them!"

Next up, was Venus, a 350 pound sow (pig) they bought to breed. Never will forget the day I came home to find yards of rope twine strung from everything conceivable object from the barn to the fences to the clothesline to the cellar house to the trees with some piglets tied up on the ends of it and DH frantically trying to catch one piglet as two more wriggled loose.

I couldn't help it, collapsed on the yard and started laughing so hard I was crying. The harder I laughed, the madder DH got. Seems Venus had escaped with her 14 piglets and moved in! Finally got them all back to the MacDonalds but Venus did get her revenge on us later....

One day when I went out to feed the horses, I saw the largest white rabbit I had ever seen perched on a hay bale. Ran back to the house and yelled at DH to come see. It was gone when we got back to the hay shed. Happened over and over but only I saw him.

First in that shed, then under the lilac tree, then this place and that, but DH never did see him and started calling him "Harvey" after the Jimmy Stewart movie and questioning whether I had been hitting the sherry! Until about three weeks later when the neighbor's daughter came over and asked if we had seen her pet rabbit! Guess they had just then noticed that he was missing.

Last story, Venus' revenge. Guess she never forgave us for tackling her piglets as one day she escaped, once again. I opened the back door to leave and she charged me. Believe me, a 350 pound mad pig can be pretty vicious. I tried to sneak out the front door but she caught me before I made it to the car.

Called the neighbors but, of course, they weren't home. So tried several more times to escape; each time she got me trapped. Called DH and he said to fight her off with the water hose. So I finally crawled out of the bedroom window on the side of the house that had a faucet, turned the water as high as it would go and fended her off as I made my way to the car.

All pretty funny NOW but not then. Also there were many, many situations that weren't funny at all with stray neglected animals, dogs who killed some of our pets, animals who dug up our rose garden, ect.

"2stayor2go," Still so sure you want to find a place with no Restrictive Covenants? Just because you want the freedom to do what you would like doesn't mean that others will utilize that same freedom in a responsible manner....

PSS. Hope some of you enjoyed the stories; I was laughing (years later) at the recollection of DH trying to rope and tie piglets. Even he laughs now at how ridiculous the whole scene was.

IR, you are such a joy! Thanks for sharing your funny stories!

OH MY - I used to run a horse farm, and have been around all the critters you discussed, and having been charged by a mad Sow, I SO understand your situation. They were great!!! On our farm, we had guinea hens (that weren't so bad), chickens - that actually ended up being a problem, and we got rid of them and peacocks that can be incredibly irritating - their mating call, outside my bedroom window in the really, early morning hours was something that I really found particularly irritating. I agree with Idaho, though - go to the source, find the covenants and restrictions - and abide by them. If they are too restrictive for you, and you really want a farm, find an area with no restrictions at all and have a great time. Good luck with your search, and happy farming!! (Did I mention that the farm I lived on also had cattle? I could go into how we dealt with the bulls we had there that we didn't want to breed - but you probably don't want to hear that one.... ).

IR & Debid-
Thanks for sharing your great stories! I'm soo looking forward to the day we actually sell our home and we can go out and find our New acreage! I look forward to having some good stories to share down the road!! Thanks again for your personal insights into this! It's been a pleasure to read!

Thanks all! Glad you enjoyed the stories about what happens when you don't have any Restrictive Covenants and exactly what RC's are anyway!