Shellie Tippet wants to raise her six chickens, collectively known as the BootlEGGers, peacefully in the backyard of her Windswept Farms home in the Jefferson County portion of Eureka.
Tippet, 33, said her subdivision’s homeowners association has taken issue with the chickens – Knight Rider, Marshmallow, Goldie, Lemon Drop, Ally Capone and Bugs Mor-hen – and has threatened fines, liens, destruction of her coop and legal action, despite the state passing a law she believes gives her permission to pasture the chickens.
Tippet said her coop was vandalized on May 9, allowing her chickens to temporarily run free.
Eureka Police Lt. Michael Tapp said officers were called to her house at 11:30 a.m. that day and found that two sections of zip ties and a section of wire had been cut. There were no security cameras in the area, and Tapp could not provide an estimate for the damage.
All the chickens are now safe and accounted for, Tippet said, and as of mid-June, the coop was still standing, despite threats from the subdivision’s homeowners association.
The new state law on chicken ownership went into effect last August, allowing homeowners to raise chickens outside of the jurisdiction of HOAs. According to the law, up to six chickens are allowed on lots that are 2/10ths of an acre or larger. HOAs can still adopt “reasonable” rules on chicken ownership, such as restricting roosters, according to the law.
Tippet, who closely monitored the bill’s journey through the Missouri State Legislature, purchased a coop and chickens the day the law went into effect on Aug. 28.
The HOA sent its first correspondence with the subdivision’s guidelines on chicken ownership to Tippet in October and another letter citing her for not complying with the policy in November.
Tippet said the policies do not allow for the safe pasture of chickens, specifically saying the cramped coop required under the HOA’s rules would lead to chicken fights and disease.
“I’ve always enjoyed farming and self-sufficiency,” Tippet said. “I grew up on farmland in Pennsylvania, and my first job was on an organic chicken farm at 12 years old. I know a lot about chickens.
“I committed to (the BootlEGGers), and I’m going to give them the best life that I can, and they’re going to stay with me. I’m not going to just dump them because the HOA has a problem with it.”
‘Reasonable’
According to documents provided by Tippet, the Windswept Farms HOA found her to be in violation of four subdivision policies. The letter said she needs to put up a perimeter fence and that her coop exceeds the maximum height and width allowed; that the coop is not screened from view of neighboring homes and streets and that the coop’s color needs to match the exterior of Tippet’s home.
Tippet said these violations are “100 percent” unreasonable and do not follow state law.
Many aspects of the subdivision’s policy on chicken ownership are unrealistic, she said, such as the stipulation of perimeter fencing. Tippet said the subdivision only allows fences with a height of 4 feet and a minimum of 3-inch gaps between each fence slat.
“That’s not keeping anything in (the yard), if the chickens should get out, and it’s not blocking a view from anything,” Tippet said. “They know that people aren’t going to spend $10,000 or more on a fence. People would rather just say, ‘Forget it. I don’t want chickens that badly.’”
Tim Tobin, president of the Omni Management Group, which represents the Windswept Farms HOA, said its board of director members worked with a lawyer to craft the rules.
“This allowed the board to confirm the policy will align with the new Missouri law and the HOA’s ability to adopt reasonable rules for the best interests of all homeowner members in Windswept Farms,” he said.
Limbo
In April, Tippet received a letter from the HOA’s legal counsel, Carmody MacDonald in St. Louis, threatening legal action if she did not take down the coop or submit an architectural plan for a new coop that complies with the HOA’s policies.
Tippet said she hasn’t heard from the HOA since.
“Somebody asked me, ‘Why don’t you just get rid of the chickens?’ I don’t get rid of my animals,” Tippet said. “I’m not the type of person to adopt a pet and then get bored with it and re-home it. They are a part of the family.”
Tippet said she fears many homeowners will give up on owning chickens after they realize how restrictive the HOA’s policies are. She said raising the chickens has resulted in positive outcomes for her two elementary school-aged sons.
“There are so many benefits to growing up with livestock, animals and pets, learning how to care for them and learning how to have some kind of self-sustainability,” Tippet said.