As of spring 2010 the city of Somerville was working on a policy specifically addressing chickens. It sounded like they intended to make some specific guidelines but generally continue allowing chickens. That thread has it about right in that there's no law that says you can't and no need for the law to change in Somerville.
However, what would happen if someone complained about the backyard chickens of a neighbor right now is a little bit unclear. They're not illegal but they're not explicitely allowed either, and if they can point at a policy that says "yup, 3 chickens in a Somerville backyard and no rooster is just fine" then there would be less question about it.
I don't know what happened to the rumored policy after that; I decided that this spring wasn't the year for me to try getting backyard chickens myself, alas.
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Date: 2011-05-11 05:27 pm (UTC)However, what would happen if someone complained about the backyard chickens of a neighbor right now is a little bit unclear. They're not illegal but they're not explicitely allowed either, and if they can point at a policy that says "yup, 3 chickens in a Somerville backyard and no rooster is just fine" then there would be less question about it.
I don't know what happened to the rumored policy after that; I decided that this spring wasn't the year for me to try getting backyard chickens myself, alas.