Category: Writing | Farm Posts

Can Your HOA Ban Chickens, Even If the City Allows Them?


Playing with the idea of having a few backyard chickens for fresh eggs, but live in an HOA community? Well, you just hit a major roadblock, with one exception, and we’ll get to that in a bit. Many people assume that if their city or state passes an ordinance allowing backyard hens, they are automatically cleared to build a coop. Unfortunately, the reality of property laws across the United States tells a completely different story.
To put it simply, just because the city says you can have chickens doesn’t mean your HOA has to let you. In almost all of the United States, your HOA can completely ban you from keeping chickens, even if your city and state say it’s legal.
An HOA only loses its power to restrict your flock if a state legislature passes a law that explicitly voids private contracts. While many states have stepped in to protect things like solar panels or flags from HOA overreach, almost none have extended that same protection to poultry. What does “almost” mean? Florida stands out as a rare exception with legislation that stripped HOAs of their power to ban backyard chickens, provided the coop is hidden in the backyard.
But beware, HOA boards frequently use vague nuisance clauses regarding odors, flies, noise and especially complaints to shut down anything they don’t like… such as chicken coops. The golden rule for homeowners across America is simple, never assume a government green light means your HOA won’t shut you down… because they will try, and most likely succeed .

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Aldi’s Eggs are MUCH Cheaper, Why?

It’s just efficient business practices, plain & simple. There’s absolutely no difference between Aldi’s eggs than those from big name grocery chains. In fact, they often all come from the same suppliers.
Their eggs are sold under the private label brand Goldhen. While the company does not publicly advertise its suppliers, industry tracking based on packaging plant codes indicates their major supplier is 1Rose Acre Farms, which is one of the largest egg producers in the United States. This same supplier often provides eggs for Walmart.
The Source of the Savings: Aldi’s low prices are the result of “no-frills” operational savings that are passed on to you. For example, about 90% of Aldi’s products are house brands. By cutting out the middleman of big name brands, they avoid paying for third party marketing and brand premiums. What does that mean? They deal more directly with manufacturers and skips extra layers that usually add cost. Big name brands means companies like Kellogg’s, Coca-Cola, or Doritos. Third party marketing refers to expensive advertising, TV commercials, celebrity endorsements, and large marketing campaigns those brands pay for. Brand premiums means customers often pay extra just because a product has a famous label.
How Aldi’s Keeps the Overhead Low: They operate with very small staffs, employees multitask and share duties, such as stocking, cashiering, etc. Customers bag their own groceries, which significantly lowers their overhead. Eggs arrive in display ready shipping boxes, meaning that instead of an employee stacking individual cartons on a shelf, they simply slide the entire shipping crate into the cooler. Also, Aldi doesn’t hire employees to gather carts from the parking lot. Instead, they require a quarter deposit to unlock a cart. This deposit is refunded to customers when they secure the cart back in the bay.
If Aldi’s hasn’t come to your neighborhood yet, I hope it does soon!

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  1. Rose Acre Farms is the second-largest egg producer in the United States. Headquartered in Seymour, Indiana, the company is a massive player in the agricultural sector, supplying shell eggs, specialty eggs, and processed egg products to major retailers, food service providers, and industrial manufacturers nationwide. The company manages roughly 25.5 million birds across 15 to 17 primary laying facilities spanning seven states, including Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Georgia, North Carolina, and Arizona. ↩︎

The Reality of Chicken Keeping in a HOT Desert Climate

Phoenix, Arizona, is a great example of what chicken keeping is like when temperatures soar to 115+ degrees. This is not an exaggeration, and to be perfectly honest, 120 degrees is certainly not unheard of. Chickens are pretty hardy as a rule, but they are not invincible. They need special care when temperatures rise, you can learn more about that in the article below.

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Now that the chickens are taken care of, let’s talk about you, your role in all this, and what you can expect your days to look like during the hottest months of the year. You might be thinking you can handle the job for just a few months of summer, but Phoenix is a lot different. From May through October, the heat is relentless, with June, July, and August being especially brutal.
That means you’re out in the heat too, and not just once or twice a day. If the water in the drinkers gets too hot, the chickens will avoid it, and that can be a death sentence, so it has to be refilled with cooler water throughout the day. This is why auto drinkers and nipple drinkers should NEVER be used in desert climates. Mist systems and fans need to be adjusted and managed, and diligent housekeeping is imperative because chicken droppings create even more heat. To be clear, diligent means every day.
There may be a chicken that needs medical attention, things break, and problems are inevitable. When something goes wrong, you need to be out in the heat dealing with it. That’s the reality. I’ve been doing this for 14 years, so for me, it’s worth it. The question is, is it worth it for you?

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