Free range chickens?

[sm8]

Just curious if anyone know of laws in St. Mary's regarding free range chickens? There are several houses coming thru Oakville area on 235 where I have noticed chickens on the side of the road. I am assuming they go with a nearby house (or that is what I tell my kids anyway when they are begging me to stop and get them).

Just wanted to add I am not asking because I want to complain, I was curious because I think it would be neat to have a whole yard full of chickens. I do not believe I would because I would fear something happening to them but I still think it would be neat.

 

[PJay]

The last place we camped had free range chickens. I enjoyed watching them and hearing the rooster sound off different hours of the day.

 

[mamatutu]

Just curious if anyone know of laws in St. Mary's regarding free range chickens? There are several houses coming thru Oakville area on 235 where I have noticed chickens on the side of the road. I am assuming they go with a nearby house (or that is what I tell my kids anyway when they are begging me to stop and get them).

Just wanted to add I am not asking because I want to complain, I was curious because I think it would be neat to have a whole yard full of chickens. I do not believe I would because I would fear something happening to them but I still think it would be neat.

It is funny that you bring this up. We see a bunch of chickens on Broomes Island on the side of the road. They don't get in the road, they just are pecking and hanging out on the side. I thought it was odd. Do they get out of their coop, or are they free range? Thank goodness I haven't seen a dead chicken in the middle of the road, yet. Seeing dead squirrels, possums, foxes, deer, snakes and other animals makes me sad enough.

 

[sm8]

The ones on the side of the road make me nervous, I am still traumatized from when I was dating my husband. We were out in a boat and I kept freaking out thinking he was going to hit a seagull. He told me it was impossible to hit one even if you tried, he then said watch as we were approaching the next one and "THUMP" and he flew right past my head. Luckily he was ok but I felt horrible about it. We live well off the road and have about 3 acres of land that we own but back up to marshland so we do not have many houses in sight. We do have one neighbor that likes to turn us in for anything we do. We do have chickens but I have them in a coop/run. It has 8 foot walls and a roof so I can walk around inside and they do not get eaten by a hawk (I still wonder if hubby was just teasing about the hawk thing). We have a 4 foot fence around our yard for the kids but I am so tempted to let all of the chickens wander around in it. We did not have them for a week before she called animal control on us, he was leaving as I was getting home and he was in a hurry so he could not answer any of my questions about laws regulating them. He just said we were not breaking any laws with anything we were doing with any of our animals and he needed to go talk to the complainer and explain that to her so he could get on with the rest of his work for the day.

 

[Misfit]

My neighbors have free range chickens. They poop all over our porch, which was fine until we put the house on the market. We've had showings where people wouldn't even go inside because a rooster was standing on the porch.

 

[glhs837]

A house near Cooks has them, see them in the dirt driveway pecking away. Never seen one dead in the road.

 

[BadGirl]

We have free range chickens. They seem to know their home property, because even though they venture out and about, they never go too far away from their coop. And they almost never stay outside of their coop at night.

One thing about chickens is that they are messy. They have no shame in pooping wherever they go, and they poop a LOT. And it's not like you can potty train them to only poop in certain designated areas. It is disgusting to have chicken poop all over the place. Once the weather warms up a bit, we are going to move the coop a lit further away from the house; of course, moving the coop closer to the woods puts them in more danger from predators (fox, skunks, raccoons, etc.).

I can't wait to take a nice walk on the green grass without having to constantly watch my step, for fear of getting chicken junk on my bare feet.

 

[RoseRed]

I used to date a guy that had chickens. 4 hens and 1 rooster. He lets them out of the coop during the day and they went back in at disk for the night.

 

[PJay]

What I found amazing the cats and one dog the owners also had on the property left the chickens alone.

 

[Roman]

I have chickens myself. We use to let them run free, and had no problems with the neighbors. We did have problems with the predators though, so we keep them in a coop. In Calvert County, you have to have at least 3 acres of land, and the coop had to be a certain amount of feet away from a dwelling. Not sure about St. Mary's County.

 

[ArkRescue]

The ones on the side of the road make me nervous, I am still traumatized from when I was dating my husband. We were out in a boat and I kept freaking out thinking he was going to hit a seagull. He told me it was impossible to hit one even if you tried, he then said watch as we were approaching the next one and "THUMP" and he flew right past my head. Luckily he was ok but I felt horrible about it. We live well off the road and have about 3 acres of land that we own but back up to marshland so we do not have many houses in sight. We do have one neighbor that likes to turn us in for anything we do. We do have chickens but I have them in a coop/run. It has 8 foot walls and a roof so I can walk around inside and they do not get eaten by a hawk (I still wonder if hubby was just teasing about the hawk thing). We have a 4 foot fence around our yard for the kids but I am so tempted to let all of the chickens wander around in it. We did not have them for a week before she called animal control on us, he was leaving as I was getting home and he was in a hurry so he could not answer any of my questions about laws regulating them. He just said we were not breaking any laws with anything we were doing with any of our animals and he needed to go talk to the complainer and explain that to her so he could get on with the rest of his work for the day.

Anytime I let my chickens out to forage I need to be nearby to keep an eye on them because not all of them are bright enough to seek cover if a hawk is in the area. I literally have to chase the dimwits to get them to run back to the pen lol. I do have an idea about creating an area that is filled with grass and bugs and covered by netting to keep them safer. One of these days I'll get to that .....

 

[ArkRescue]

My neighbors have free range chickens. They poop all over our porch, which was fine until we put the house on the market. We've had showings where people wouldn't even go inside because a rooster was standing on the porch.

Oh my well your neighbor needs to be informed of what is happening and asked to keep the chickens off your property, at least until the house sells ....

 

[MADPEBS1]

and you get eggs lots of eggs, count on pretty much 1 per/day from each.....

 

[my-thyme]

I'm in the market for some laying hens. Does anyone have some for sale? Mostly interested in silkies or banties.

 

[ArkRescue]

I'm in the market for some laying hens. Does anyone have some for sale? Mostly interested in silkies or banties.

Check the So. MD Chicken Chat group on FB, if you are not on FB I can check for you. There may be some folks there selling them. Be warned of people who say the age of a hen is younger than it really is, which is why most folks like to raise them from chicks unless they trust the person selling them. I can vouch for a few of the sellers out there, just let me know who you find that has them. Silkies are a popular breed, so you may find some pullets available this time of year that are about to begin laying or may already be laying. I have 2 bantams, 1 blue and 1 black, but mine are probably 4 years old now, but they still lay almost daily. If I locate someone selling them I'll pop back on here and let you know.