Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[fuzzybutt love]

Rockford allows for 3 hens, grand rapids is a solid no; holland is on the fence. Conklin is a solid no. Sparta i think is ok in the country as i think is coopersville ( just not in town) i am thinking i need to do a road trip survey of township rules for chickens. Or get the e mail addresses for them? I am serious about the map! Might help the good fight to have a simple visual of the *few* places left under the proposed changes (since they only affect city folk..sarcasm) Also a good point about the zoning definition. They really need to work on another way to define the proposed boundaries!!!!

 

[Candy442]

Michigan Commission of Agriculture and Rural Development
Email and Call Commissioners

Please use the online petition to email each member of the Michigan Commission of Agriculture and Rural Development and follow up with a phone call. See talking points above.

For your convenience, you can copy/paste this list into the "To" field to send follow-up emails:
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Chair, Diane Hanson
906-384-6301
[email protected]

Vice Chair, Trever Meachum
269-621-4360
[email protected]

Secretary, Fred Walcott
616-895-7063
[email protected]

Member, Bob Kennedy
989-662-4423
[email protected]

Member, Dru Montri
517-432-3381
[email protected]

I signed and requested comment to be sent to LSJ as well. Thanks RaZ

 

[BentoMinion]

Fuzzy, I am in Egelston township (Oakridge area of Muskegon) and I am allowed 10 as long as it is not within 100 feet of the school... Our property butts up to the lower Elm. So my coop and run have to be mid yard (we have .7acer lot). Roosters are allowed. IDK if that helps you any.

I emailed all the reps and my SO is using his work email (Gov email) to email them as well.

 

[Amy PT]

Fuzzy, I am in Egelston township (Oakridge area of Muskegon) and I am allowed 10 as long as it is not within 100 feet of the school... Our property butts up to the lower Elm. So my coop and run have to be mid yard (we have .7acer lot). Roosters are allowed. IDK if that helps you any.

I emailed all the reps and my SO is using his work email (Gov email) to email them as well.

I do some work at that school! Now I'm going to have to look in the yards the next time I'm there.

 

[Amy PT]

I do some work at that school! Now I'm going to have to look in the yards the next time I'm there.

um... in a non-stalkery way.

 

[RaZ]

Rockford allows for 3 hens, grand rapids is a solid no; holland is on the fence. Conklin is a solid no. Sparta i think is ok in the country as i think is coopersville ( just not in town) i am thinking i need to do a road trip survey of township rules for chickens. Or get the e mail addresses for them? I am serious about the map! Might help the good fight to have a simple visual of the *few* places left under the proposed changes (since they only affect city folk..sarcasm) Also a good point about the zoning definition. They really need to work on another way to define the proposed boundaries!!!!

It is really amazing that we chicken people can do this research on our free time and have a far better understanding of where we can and cannot have our farms. Those working against us, Michigan Municipal League, Farm Bureau, Michigan Township Association and MDARD themselves can't say with any certainty where farm operations are "legally" permitted.

 

[fuzzybutt love]

LOL total stalker Part of having chickens tho- always a curious watcher! I used to get that when my original group would garden with me. I taught them to not uproot, they ate the bugs as i pulled weeds and got a lot of grasshoppers for me. Last roo would not follow me, i hope the new roo will lead the girls with me to the garden! I miss the companionship.

Thanks for the help bento minion! I am originally from cedar springs and i am clueless about where it is ok there. Some parts of muskegon i think would be a bad idea! I will have a human safe coop no matter where i go.i have heard too many stories; no one is eating my babies!

 

[snowflake]

Happy First Day of Spring! (??)

I am force-blooming a few tulips and daffodils along the kitchen ledge, and this is the first of them to fully bloom! At least its something!

love tulips, very pretty

Senator Stabenow spoke first at the Ag Meeting and mentioned several times that the feds, at least, appreciate small farm operations and is actively working to promote young farmers and returning military veterans as farmers. Several MDARD people seemed to squirm a bit at those comments.

The entire meeting was filmed and you can see a small potion here:

thanks Raz for the up date and re-print of address'

Hello!!! We ended up winning Best of Breed Silkie at the specialty show in Lima,Ohio last weekend with one of our white cockerels. (Silkies) I don't have a picture of him but I did a little photo shoot with one of our blue hens

Congrats on the wins an the pics are sweet!!

Thank you all who are going to bat for us with MDARD & RTF. We are lucky to have bought property zoned Ag, and am surrounted by zoned Ag. I assumed we were Res until I checked - the only Res is a development put up a few years ago, and a house across the street that was built about 10 years ago. Funny thing is the property was split and the original house is still zoned Ag. Go figure. Thank you again - I did send in emails and will continue to do so.

x2

3 milles and a porcelein

such sweet babys!!

Rockford allows for 3 hens, grand rapids is a solid no; holland is on the fence. Conklin is a solid no. Sparta i think is ok in the country as i think is coopersville (

Interesting,,,, I checked GR a few months ago (just for fun,daughter lives there) they had hens OK no roosters, listed??, wonder if they have changed it

 

[BentoMinion]

um... in a non-stalkery way.

lol I will save you some leg work. I am on the back side. The house with windows drawn on with window marker.

You may know one of my boys if PT means you are a physical therapist. One had therapy last year in the ECSE.

 

[Candy442]

It is really amazing that we chicken people can do this research on our free time and have a far better understanding of where we can and cannot have our farms. Those working against us, Michigan Municipal League, Farm Bureau, Michigan Township Association and MDARD themselves can't say with any certainty where farm operations are "legally" permitted.

I agree. We live in an Agriculture area, but are zoned Rural Residential by the Township. That means we are allowed to have 50 chickens per acre. We have 1.99 acres...guess what? We can not prorate the chicken numbers and have to limit to 50. We can also have three small livestock, meaning 3 goats or sheep, but can't have those in addition to the 50 chickens. If we want a goat, we need to take 1/3 number of chickens away that we can have to compensate for the goat...LOL... mind boggling when I live around people with no less than 10-40 acre "yards".

We also just established our almost 2 acre yard as a "farm" with the NRCS so we could look into a high tunnel house, thanks to you RaZ. We would never even have known about those funds if you didn't post and we did not have chickens...

.


We also need to tag onto this writing effort to keep favorable legislation by going to our Township meetings and working to get the zoning language changed as well!