Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

I see this on Kijiji, and it reminds me of how tenuous some of us are, though well established. I don't know or want to know these people's exact situation. But I suspect that quite a few of us could be afoul of the law if pushed. All of us must do our best to keep good neighbor relations, no matter what our zoning. When I started with the hobby farm, I did not check zoning. If I don't ask the authorities, they can't say no and that I knew, though they could shut me down.

My neighbor one side are great, my chickens roam his place and they get free eggs, all are happy. The other side, not so much, and I do my best to keep them out of there. He came over one day and told me "You aren't zoned agricultural you know, and if someone reported you, you would have to get rid of them. Now, we wouldn't report you, but somebody might." So if we ever get reported, I will know who did it. They don't like farm eggs or home made jam. Its a work in progress.

Anyway, food for thought.

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-livestock/cornwa ... nFlag=true

Here it's 6 acres required but you do see some with less with horses mainly. I assume at the mercy of their neighbours.

The sad part of this these days is that many of the older farms are severed so the house and barn are on a small lot and the rest of the land sold to cash croppers. Most of the severances are too small for a functional livestock farm so the barns become useless. Also, once the house is habited by non-farmers it gets harder to farm. There are many areas in Ontario where you can't set up a livestock operation of any size due to the setbacks from all the severed lots that are everywhere.

With the whole emphasis on local and sustainability, I don't know why the regs can't adapt to allowing small appropriate numbers of livestock on rural properties.

Oh man thats sad! Yes it is very important to know your laws and make sure the law is on your side! check them out before you, pull the trigger, move or buy property. I had bantam chickens in sarnia, they have a bylaw that allows for a dozen bantams, its an old bylaw too. so when one looks at it, is it an outdated bylaw as well because I was the only person I knew at the time with chickens in Sarnia? I'd hate to see it get updated and removed. your also allowed a certain number of rabbits and pigeons but absolutely no big livestock of any kind.

When I was a reptile breeder more than once I had arguments with landlords. its nice to be able to resite the landlord tennant act and the local bylaws. making damn sure that they now know that I have a very clear understanding of my rights and a very clear understanding of how they were trying to break the law. its also nice to have connections with big lawers ready to take on those cases for free.

know your rights and responsibilities. Poor Animals!

I'm on a farm so I'm lucky but I know people who have had this happen, even though they are surrounded by farms, makes no sense sending away your chickens while your neighbour's cows watch you do it. That's so sad. I can see the flip side, like the people in a village who had a pony in the backyard, they didn't want the smell so they put the manure pile near the neighbour's back door, surprising that there was trouble there, lol.

I also learned there are people who get some strange high from constantly searching out rules and regulations and feel it's their duty to harass the neighbours constantly, it's a weird power trip for them, so beware, they are trouble makers.

So in Sarnia they dont have a property size stipulation, instead they have clear regulations on where the animals reside on your property, they have to be penned, be a certain distance from your property line, free of vermin and refuse and a certain distance from human dwellings. that pretty much sums it up. and and any offspring does not count towards your number until they are 3 months old.

clearly this bylaw was instated by someone with an agricultural background and with a brain.

Our new zoning Bylaw says you need 10 acres (even zoned ag or rural) to have what they call a Livestock operation. We have 5 acres and will at least be grandfathered. Our immediate neighbours have cattle. A Livestock Operation is defined as for profit nd with a certain number of nutrient units (maybe 8) by OMAFRA. Our planning officer has deemed even 1 backyard chicken to be an operation. It could be fought but she has a tendency to use threats against people. We are OK but the neighbour wife has made threats against us out of s nastiness! SHe has shut up now because she realises she's in the wrong but doesn't seem o realise that their cattle are, in winter, yarded 10 feet from the other neighbours well! People can be so nasty, really feel for thos folks who are not that far from us.
Should have read 10 originally!

The safest way to find out what your zoning is and what it actually means in your area is to access the information, all of it is now accessible on line.
The biggest problem is, that although you may not move, the townships get consolidated and then swallowed by larger political entities and one day you find yourself inside a city, which you might have moved out of 35 years ago.
We are zoned rural, which at this point means absolutely nothing, because manure disposal and livestock housing has to be so far from a property line that our 10 acres wouldn't be enough for a compost pile.
Like farrier said best policy, get along with your neighbor and that's not always possible.
BTW there is a law by which all neighborhoods are covered, your neighbor on one side is going to be nice and the neighbor on the other side will be a jerk or at leas a hoarder of wrecked machinery of every possible vintage.

Our daughter would like an Alpaca or 2 and some Easter Eagers. In our Township t.hat requires 5 acres. She lives on a lot at the corner of our farm, so I told her to put her coop and shelter on my side of the line.

Yes it's so ridiculous you live in the country but can't have livestock, a friend bought a farm for a chicken operation they told him he couldn't have animals because he didn't tick off agricultural on the property transfer when he bought it. It was already a chicken farm when he bought it,and already zoned agricultural, he had to fight it. How stupid!

More people in urban set ups now than used to be & more moving to country & attitude from Possesion to pet type is changing & were gonna have to be part of the fix not the problem or we will ALL loose um . Luck