Chicken poop makes good fertilizer.

quote: 25 feet away from neighboring homes.

So with a 50 ft. lot with neighbors on both sides, this is physically impossible I guess. Oh well.

Just got back from my friend's place in South Jersey. He raises chicken. I told him about the council's proposal. He informed me that if chicken coops are not cleaned constantly, they stink all to hell.

Can't be worse than the building next to me that smells like cat piss.

I'll leave the politics to the rest of you fine folks. But I would buy eggs and honey locally sourced from JC as long as they were not NYC prices. :)

Glad to hear our city council has its priorities straight. Will this help balance the city budget and/or reduce our property taxes?

$250 total shipped

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Chicken-H ... -Coop-Large-/180896660646

Should I cross post this on the illegal apartment thread?

hey i live in jersey city new jersey and i would also love to raise chickens here too,but do you know what breed of chicken egg is the fertilized egg like is it a rode island red for example and I'm scared if the guy for the home expection comes and takes them away is it a ordinance yet and how did you deal with your expector,thanx

I'm not sure if this ordinance was passed, but here's an interesting story on urban chicken coops.

http://www.mnn.com/your-home/organic- ... chicken-coops/little-barn

I have raised chickens in Jersey City and think it's great the city is viewing this as a positive. We would get around 5 eggs a week on average. Chickens are actually quite nice to have around and eventually get along with dogs and cats and roam freely around them. Cats are actually quite afraid of them once the chickens get to a certain size. They also enjoy being picked up and stroked. In the summer I would lift bricks and rocks up in the back yard and the chickens would snap up grubs, worms, spiders, beetles, etc at a blink of an eye. If you have an enclosed back yard and have the ability and room to build a coop they are fairly easy to deal with. You will have to buy chicken feed, oyster shells, corn scratch and in the winter a heat lamp and an electric metal base heater for their water. There are a lot of web-sites on this subject.

Quote:

I'm down with both!

Just got to convince my condo board.

The current zoning allows people to raise fewer than 50 chickens, 25 feet away from neighboring homes. And no roosters are allowed.


Friend of mine does that down in South Jersey. He had to buy a Rooster because a couple of red tailed hawks started picking off his chickens.

I wonder if the Ospreys will take notice of a new food source?

http://www.uncrate.com/men/entertainm ... /country-wisdom-know-how/

http://books.google.com/books?id=y5NG ... AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false



Now matter how "citified" you might be, you can still learn a thing or two from less-urban ways, and Country Wisdom & Know-How ($12) is proof. Culled from Storey Publishing's "Country Wisdom Bulletins," this thick, nearly 500 page volume includes information on raising animals, cooking, gardening and farming, home improvements, and general well-being, paired with tons of black-and-white illustrations and photographs to help you along the way.

Quote:

The current zoning allows people to raise fewer than 50 chickens, 25 feet away from neighboring homes.

And no roosters are allowed.

JC Council should be encouraging more solar panels that are connected to the grid to save money - Imagine the savings ($) if solar panels were placed on all cityhall owned buildings..............a rebate for residents would also be included. Solar panels are not expensive considering the return you get and you can DIY


Solar is a financial disaster as well as an ecological one (google "China, Solar, Silicon Tetrachloride"... its the dirty secret of the solar industry).

The solar industry, except for certain niches, would disappear overnight without the transfer of wealth to keep it alive. Look back at your electric bills. A few years ago, you were paying about $0.12 per kWh. Now you are paying $0.18, double the national average. Half of NJ's electricity comes from nuclear, which has gotten cheaper over the past two decades. The next major chunk is coal, which has been pretty price stable. So why the huge increase? Its in large part to fund those massive SREC and rebates for the panels.

If you want to find ways to save on energy costs, look at Combined Heat & Power. No subsidies required (when deployed properly) to have it make economic sense. NJ however, bans net metering * for CHP systems (NY does not).

* net metering = excess power goes out to the grid, spinning your electric meter backwards.

i'm building a chicken coop as soon as the snow melts.

In nicer terms, this dude "Ron" is not the first raise chickens in Jersey City. I love Pioneers that move to this city and dont realize this was happening way before them! Born and raised here, I have fed chickens, roosters and my uncles pigeons on his rooftop on the Hill. Ok, there are still people who do this, now that the city is aware of this, it will be kabashed and another reason for the city to issue tickets. If something is not broke, dont fix it. Thanks Pioneer for bringing awareness and ruining it for everyone. - Your not the first and get over yourself.

Quote:

Actually solar panels and the battery/inverter/electrical systems that go with them are extremely expensive. My church recently did break-even analysis on installing such a system and discovered it would cost over 30-40,000 and would not start generating a return for 10-15 years minimum. The market is still in its infancy, if there's a way to solve Jersey City's budget problems that's probably not it.

Instead, why don't we replace the city's $50M group insurance health care with dollar-matching HSA accounts.

Better to just organic farm then to make it public. Its a city, very populated. People will put a stop to most good ideas in the city. Really think about being some kind of glorified pioneer. If its attention you are looking for, from all these posts, it sounds like you will trigger an ordinance against chicken farming. Better to just do things in this city then to want Glory and popularity. Good luck, the bee thing is cool but now all the annoying people are aware of this, except protests and new laws sprouting up.

JC Council should be encouraging more solar panels that are connected to the grid to save money - Imagine the savings ($) if solar panels were placed on all cityhall owned buildings..............a rebate for residents would also be included.
Solar panels are not expensive considering the return you get and you can DIY

OMG... now its chickens? first it was plastic bag BS... and now THIS?

What the heck is going on down in City Hall.

FIX THE DAMN BUDGET NOW.

CUT THE SPENDING. AND YOU CAN START by ending bringing anything like this to light.

Do like Nancy Reagan. Just say no.

We needs less government.

FG

Ooops! I stand corrected. I actually like the idea and hope it passes.

A CHICKEN IN EVERY YARD?
Council considers new law on owning poultry

Monday, January 24, 2011
By TERRENCE T. McDONALD
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

The agenda for tonight's Jersey City City Council caucus: the birds and the bees - literally.

The council is scheduled to introduce an ordinance this week to loosen restrictions for residents who want to own chickens. The measure would also encourage the growth of bee colonies.

"We would really like to see what the future of urban agriculture is in Jersey City," City Planner Tanya Marione-Stanton said Friday, adding that the proposal is part of an effort to give Jersey City a greener feel.

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 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 up 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.

Residents who keep fewer than eight chickens would be allowed to kill and sell the occasional fowl, Marione-Stanton said. Persons who keep eight or more chickens and regularly slaughter or sell them would have to register as a business.

There's also no need to fret about having two-legged alarm clocks in the neighborhood. Roosters, the noisy males, are prohibited.

As for bees, Marione-Stanton said many city beekeepers believe beekeeping is illegal in Jersey City, and she wants to dispel that myth.

"Today, tomorrow, yesterday you can have a beehive in New Jersey and you can be a keeper and there's nothing really we can say about it," she said, adding that the proposed ordinance merely asks city beekeepers to register with the state.

"Come sell your honey!" she said.

City resident Ron Patiro pushed the city to revamp its chicken law. He has a large garden on his Wayne Street property where he grows tomatoes, basil, peppers, squash, and more. He wants to start raising chickens for the fresh eggs.

Patiro doesn't know anyone in Jersey City who raises chickens, because many residents think it isn't permitted, he said.

"I guess I'll be one of the first," he said.

I can understand encouraging victory gardens, but chickens and bees? What the?

If this is the best the Jersey City Council can do, then they should all be ousted!

Where are the recall petitions?

Quote:

If you actually read the article it said that roosters are not allowed. And that you need written permission from your neighbors.

One word.....ROOSTERS. Now I realize you don't need a rooster for a hen to lay an 'unfertilized' egg. However, if this ordinance passes people will be raising chickens not just for eggs but for meat. So, get ready for COCK-A-DOODLE-DO at the crack of dawn.

That idea is as good as this idea

If you have a little room to spare for 2-3 chickens I don't think it's a dumb idea necessarily. If you routinely buy eggs for your family you can avoid sponsoring the horrors of factory chicken farming, and for free instead of top dollar. Especially considering that "free range" isn't a use-regulated term, when you buy those conscience-saving premium eggs at the store you can't really be sure you're helping the animals. It seems like a crazier concept to rich, American city people who are 10 steps removed from the supply chain their life depends on than it would be to entire cultures in other parts of the world which expect to be provided for by exchanging effort for nature rather than an open wallet for commercial packaging.

My Dad had two to three hives in suburban Fair Haven, NJ for years. The damn things would swarm at least once a year.. with the swarm ending up in a neighbor's tree. This would be to the delight of the old man as he really didn't like our neighbors.

The agenda for tomorrow night's Jersey City City Council caucus: the birds and the bees -- literally.

The council is scheduled to introduce an ordinance this week to loosen restrictions for residents and companies that want to own chickens. The measure would also encourage the growth of bee colonies.

"We would really like to see what the future of urban agriculture is in Jersey City," City Planner Tanya Marione-Stanton said Friday, adding that the proposal is part of an effort to give Jersey City a greener feel.

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.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... rsey_city_encouragin.html

What a lame brain idea. Raising fowl in residential areas with all the accompanying filth and disease ?!