Anyone in the JAX FL area? What areas can you keep roosters?

[2ndTink]

Long story short, we have a job offer in Jacksonville FL and are in town checking out the area. We currently have 24 chickens, 1 being a rooster and we're considering raising some chicks in the future, maybe eventually getting into breeding purebred Ameraucanas or heritage BRs or maybe just stick to replenishing our own flock of hatchery stock with our own mixes.

Reading local ordinances, JAX area allows 5 hens, no roosters and an additional 5 hens for every additional half acre. What areas are close to the middle- west part of Jacksonville that would allow for our little poultry farmette? Or we need at least 3 acres in town and would still have to get rid of our roo.

Anyone here with chicken experiences in the area?

 

[Brooks_]

@Ascholten

 

[Ascholten]

Firstly, because of the covid, nobody is really checking stuff, and if neighbors are not complaining about the noise, or poop oin their cars etc, it's not really an issue.

But with that being said. CHECK where you are at, what it is zoned as? I know by me, we are a tiny subdivision in the middle of a farm field, LITERALLY. If it's PUD or AG3 or something like that, then the 'backyard chicken' rule might not apply because you are allowed to have them anyways due to AG type zoning.

IF they do come out,, they are checking that you are taking care of your birds. Is the coop big enough, do they have ready access to water, food, are they predator proofed, stuff like that. Also, it's been some years but I think there is a blurb somewhere about them needing to be 50 feet AWAY from your house or something. Do you have the room to do that. ie if you have a chicken tractor, make sure it's THERE the day the inspector comes. It's common sense, they are trying to stop the people who think, OH, I can have 8 chickens and keep them in a cat carrier. They are not out to get you, and really are concerned about the birds. I have 5 chickens but 6 sq feet of grass on my lawn, the rest is concrete, type thing.

You can go on the COJ website and request an appointment, and I think the permit is like 10 dollars or something.

Roosters are a No NO for obvious reasons, IN zoned neighborhoods, if you live off a dirt road somewhere and your neighbor is a 6 acre farm, and got roosters...yours might be fine.

Without knowing your exact place of domicile and situation, its hard to say yes on this, no on that.

Good Luck !
Aaron

 

[2ndTink]

Firstly, because of the covid, nobody is really checking stuff, and if neighbors are not complaining about the noise, or poop oin their cars etc, it's not really an issue.

But with that being said. CHECK where you are at, what it is zoned as? I know by me, we are a tiny subdivision in the middle of a farm field, LITERALLY. If it's PUD or AG3 or something like that, then the 'backyard chicken' rule might not apply because you are allowed to have them anyways due to AG type zoning.

IF they do come out,, they are checking that you are taking care of your birds. Is the coop big enough, do they have ready access to water, food, are they predator proofed, stuff like that. Also, it's been some years but I think there is a blurb somewhere about them needing to be 50 feet AWAY from your house or something. Do you have the room to do that. ie if you have a chicken tractor, make sure it's THERE the day the inspector comes. It's common sense, they are trying to stop the people who think, OH, I can have 8 chickens and keep them in a cat carrier. They are not out to get you, and really are concerned about the birds. I have 5 chickens but 6 sq feet of grass on my lawn, the rest is concrete, type thing.

You can go on the COJ website and request an appointment, and I think the permit is like 10 dollars or something.

Roosters are a No NO for obvious reasons, IN zoned neighborhoods, if you live off a dirt road somewhere and your neighbor is a 6 acre farm, and got roosters...yours might be fine.

Without knowing your exact place of domicile and situation, its hard to say yes on this, no on that.

Good Luck !
Aaron

That's good that they are concerned about their welfare. We wouldn't have any problems there as we have quite the pampered chickens. Real estate is insane down there!

Good note on the zoning, we will be able to have a realtor add that to our requirements, and check out the COJ too. We did see one little place that would let us have 5 chickens, but sheesh, which 19 would we choose to let go ☹ plus they'd be going from 2 acres surrounded by farm fields that they get to free range in, to a small back yard.

Thanks so much for the info! This is a super tough decision

 

[Ascholten]

You don't HAVE to move into a subdivision do you? I mean there are a LOT of rural houses around here, and places that do not have HOA Bullshit to put up with either. The realtor could easily find you a small place, or a larger place on a plot like that, Old Plank Road comes to mind, it's rural, not clustered into one tight pimple of houses with the HOA nazi running around with her clipboard every morning with a decimeter seeing how loudly each cackle is. THe 5 chickens is duval 'city limits' ie within and coded as purely residential. The rest of Duval, is NOT purely residental. It may be LDR, or an AGxx or FARM or some other coding, that the whole chicken thing is moot, in fact your neighbor may ask if need some of HIS chickens!!

South side you are probably going to be pretty limited. North side, NorthWest side is nice area, though the south siders will consider it 'west side' if you talk to them, and say were just a bunch of pig 343FDGing rednecks. Don' listen to those types. Every part of town has it's trailer park, it's slum, it's ghetto, it's regular people area, and uppity snob sectors. just make sure your realtor KNOWS your preferences and is not after a quick sale. oh that... oh it's gunshots. they probably just getting ready for 4th of july. don'tworry about that, oh and the sirens... naah that's just for the parade.

Newer houses are probably going to be HOA, if they are in a subdivision, it's a stupid Florida law. Older houses in hoods are NOT necessarily going to be HOA, but.. are older houses, which may mean nothing, or mean a lot of repairs. Rural houses, ie you are driving down Lem Turner Road and come across a house and some land every block or so, chickens no worry.

I think you get my idea.

oh and ps, even IF you end up in a smaller area, as long as they are not making a ton of noise, or the neighbors are complaining because of stink or something, nobody is going to make weekly rounds to make SURE you only have 5, if you get my drift.
Not to mention if you were to hand out a dozen eggs or so here and there to the neighbors, I can almost guaranTEE there won't be any issues
Aaron

 

[Brooks_]

Newer houses are probably going to be HOA, if they are in a subdivision, it's a stupid Florida law.

Wait. What?

And I was kinda thinking the Baldwin area could work for them.

 

[2ndTink]

You don't HAVE to move into a subdivision do you? I mean there are a LOT of rural houses around here, and places that do not have HOA Bullshit to put up with either. The realtor could easily find you a small place, or a larger place on a plot like that, Old Plank Road comes to mind, it's rural, not clustered into one tight pimple of houses with the HOA nazi running around with her clipboard every morning with a decimeter seeing how loudly each cackle is. THe 5 chickens is duval 'city limits' ie within and coded as purely residential. The rest of Duval, is NOT purely residental. It may be LDR, or an AGxx or FARM or some other coding, that the whole chicken thing is moot, in fact your neighbor may ask if need some of HIS chickens!!

South side you are probably going to be pretty limited. North side, NorthWest side is nice area, though the south siders will consider it 'west side' if you talk to them, and say were just a bunch of pig 343FDGing rednecks. Don' listen to those types. Every part of town has it's trailer park, it's slum, it's ghetto, it's regular people area, and uppity snob sectors. just make sure your realtor KNOWS your preferences and is not after a quick sale. oh that... oh it's gunshots. they probably just getting ready for 4th of july. don'tworry about that, oh and the sirens... naah that's just for the parade.

Newer houses are probably going to be HOA, if they are in a subdivision, it's a stupid Florida law. Older houses in hoods are NOT necessarily going to be HOA, but.. are older houses, which may mean nothing, or mean a lot of repairs. Rural houses, ie you are driving down Lem Turner Road and come across a house and some land every block or so, chickens no worry.

I think you get my idea.

oh and ps, even IF you end up in a smaller area, as long as they are not making a ton of noise, or the neighbors are complaining because of stink or something, nobody is going to make weekly rounds to make SURE you only have 5, if you get my drift.
Not to mention if you were to hand out a dozen eggs or so here and there to the neighbors, I can almost guaranTEE there won't be any issues
Aaron

Ha! Yeah, we were wondering if some eggs here and there might help smoothe things with neighbors and maybe the 5 limit could be stretched. Hey, and who doesn't like waking up to a rooster? Ok, maybe that's too far

Interesting on the different zonings in Duval. We're going to have the realtor check out some other areas. Originally we were looking maybe north or west a ways out of town but if we are going to be driving a jaunt to get to a subdivision, might as well save the road time and try to find an older place "in town". We were just looking at Old Plank Road actually. Baldwin, Bryceville, Callahan, Hilliard. Brain scramble

 

[Ascholten]

Baldwin is not an issue for chickens, it's a small town, very small town, mostly nice people, in fact there a place there called Charlies Chicks, he sells chickens, and is where I got mine from. So you are in a chicken friendly place for sure. All those places you mentioned, yep pretty much north side, west side, nw side, all more country, a lot less of the Duval crime, lot more laid back and friendly too. I guess you could say, a lot more country, without the cancer you will see in the inner city. It's not really considered 'duval' for the sake of chickens, just drive around, you will see people with chickens all over. TBH your rooster will fit right in too, I live in a subdivision and basically across a field, is a farm with 5 of the MF'ers, which start about 3 am every day and go all day to about 8 pm. If you plan on selling eggs tho, that might be an issue, there tend to be signs all over the place, fresh eggs for sale $2.50 / doz so you might have some competition, however there is the feed store too but more on that later if you really want to know.

The driving to get from A to B is not too bad. You have 295 which circles the city, 301 which will take you north / south, and I-10 is right there too. You can basically run off into the atlantic ocean after getting on SR 10 or go the other way all the way to california and run off into the pacific ocean. Rush hour can suck, but that's in any city, other than that, it's eazy peazy.

Aaron

 

[Ascholten]

Just remember one thing. If you get or bring chickens, you will want to absolutely make sure you have COUNTRY chickiens. Not those city ones. Folks in these parts don't take too kindly to those city chickens now.

What's the difference you ask, well it's a BIG difference.

A Country Chicken, as soon as the sun comes up, she's out there diggin and rootin around roundin up some breakfast, she's already hard at work with the day break.

A City Chickin now, once the sun comes up, She's out there standing at the empty food dish, crying to be fed, wanting someone else to take care of her.

Nope, don't need no city ckikkins no way no how

Aaron

 

[2ndTink]

Just remember one thing. If you get or bring chickens, you will want to absolutely make sure you have COUNTRY chickiens. Not those city ones. Folks in these parts don't take too kindly to those city chickens now.

What's the difference you ask, well it's a BIG difference.

A Country Chicken, as soon as the sun comes up, she's out there diggin and rootin around roundin up some breakfast, she's already hard at work with the day break.

A City Chickin now, once the sun comes up, She's out there standing at the empty food dish, crying to be fed, wanting someone else to take care of her.

Nope, don't need no city ckikkins no way no how

Aaron

Our chickens are industrious. They will be very upset to go from their country free ranging to a lot. JAX is a huge difference for us, before living where we are now I lived in a town of 1,500 people in Idaho and absolutely loved it. I don't do traffic, neighbors, or bustle, but, gots to go where the work is, or stay here with my current job that I'm not actually doing yet because I'm still waiting on my backfill for my old job. Life is a bit of a grey muddle right now.