I looked up the ordinance, and I was wrong about a few things. Livestock or poultry may be kept provided that there are no more than 4. So I was wrong about the limit -- it's less than five and not five or less.
Also:
* I need to have a 1 acre parcel, and I have only a bit over 0.25
* It needs to be 25 feet from all property boundaries and fenced in, which limits placement options
So my options, for this plot, are nil.
I don't recall the 1 acre limit when I looked before, so I'm wondering if this has been updated.
I have 12 on a 1/2 acre plot, about 2/3rds of which is backyard they can access (so call it 1/3 acre of roaming). That amount seems more than ample, though these are pretty bougie chickens. Four in even 1/8 acre should be fine.
This was actually the most surprising thing about first time chicken ownership. I was expecting the poop, I wasn't expecting the dust and the dust bathing. They will pick one or more parts of the yard and crater it and use it for their dust baths, meaning that soil will transport elsewhere and you'll need to replenish the sand. You can kinda suggest where they do it (they prefer overhung spots that don't get rain, so it stays dry and dusty) but like cats and cat beds, they decide where to do it. I intended the under-coop space to be used for this, but they decided they like under my gazebo-tent was preferable.
Also:
So my options, for this plot, are nil.I don't recall the 1 acre limit when I looked before, so I'm wondering if this has been updated.