Neighbors complained about noise and odor from backyard chickens in Unity Tuesday as the owners concluded their testimony in pursuit of a zoning variance needed to keep the birds.

Kristin and Jeff Kuhns are appealing a July 13 ruling by township zoning officer Harry Hosack that they can’t keep a flock of 20 chickens on their Range Street property. Hosack testified that the couple’s yard measures less than the 2-acre minimum required to keep fowl, which are classified as farm animals under Unity’s zoning ordinance.

The Kuhns say they consider their chickens pets, not farm animals, and they provide emotional support for Kristin. Testifying via a remote link, she told the township zoning hearing board she and her husband follow accepted practices in caring for the birds and cleaning their coops.

The multi-part hearing began in September, and the board isn’t expected to render a decision any sooner than its next regular meeting, on March 23. That’s the deadline for the Kuhns’ attorney, David Toal, and township Solicitor Gary Falatovich to submit respective findings and conclusions of law to the zoning panel.

Meanwhile, the township planning commission is weighing a zoning amendment that would ease restrictions on keeping chickens on residential properties. That’s the topic for a separate hearing Thursday.

Lisa Flanyak, who lives next to the Kuhns’ home, told the zoning board she is bothered by the noise the chickens make. “There’s not one room in my house where I can’t hear the roosters crow,” she said.

She submitted photos of the Kuhns hosing down the chicken coops in late November, saying it left the couple’s yard a “muddy mess” and may have directed water onto her property. When a hen escaped into her yard, Flanyak said, she tried to keep it from going toward the street before she was able to alert the Kuhns about the stray.

James Ross, who lives across Range Street from the Kuhns, said he also objects to noise from the chickens, as well as an odor he attributed to the flock and the manure it produces. “You can smell the stench,” he said, objecting to used chicken bedding he said the couple piled next to a shed.

Kristin Kuhns said she cleans the roosts in her chicken coops several times a day but removes the soiled bedding of pine shavings and hoses down the coops every four to six months. She said it is a “perfectly acceptable method that poultry keepers use,” noting the decomposing bedding creates heat that helps warm the chickens during the winter.

She said she follows guidance from the Penn State extension in composting the bedding and now places it in covered bins so it will be less offensive to neighbors.

Testifying on behalf of the Kuhns, Steve Stanish said he inspects the condition of chicken enclosures while drawing blood from the birds that is tested by the state Department of Agriculture for communicable diseases. He said he approves of the Kuhns’ composting system and smelled no odor during a visit that he acknowledged was scheduled in advance.

Ross and Flanyak said they signed a petition objecting to the Kuhns’ flock. The petition was circulated by another neighbor, Darnell Biss, who has complained that the chickens attract wild predators.

Ross accused Jeff Kuhns of using weapons to confront a hawk that was attacking the couple’s chickens during a November incident.

Kristin Kuhns said the chickens suffered beak injuries in the encounter but the hawk flew away unharmed. She said she related the same account to state Game Commission officers, who investigated the incident.

Jared Miney, who has lived nearby on Golf Street since 2003, said he would occasionally see hawks in the area well before the Kuhns got their chickens.

Kristin Kuhns presented a letter from her physician supporting her claim that her chickens provide her emotional support and “help reduce anxiety and stress.”

Contesting the idea that the chickens are being used in a commercial egg-laying business, she exhibited Facebook posts indicating the eggs have been offered for free to other community residents.

Falatovich countered by displaying a Facebook post from Jan. 8, 2020, offering “18 packs of Kuhns eggs” for $8.

Kuhns testified that she didn’t create that post, but she added that it might have been posted by her husband.

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