property and chickens

[graone]

Hi

we are presently looking for a property in Brittany and are interested in one that also has a chicken building, this is rented out to persons at the moment and we would inherit the rental from them for this building.

Has anyone any knowledge of chicken breeding buildings, the positives as well as the negatives and any pit falls as to the rental and tax implications as well as liability issues.

Any information on this subject is very muched welcomed.

Thank you

Graham

[Montcigoux]

Hopefully you mean a few chicks scraping around in the farmyard to be sold on the local market. Please beware of chicken broiler raising on any scale. I lived opposite a chicken farm in the UK. Thousands of chickens intensively raised in a shed for meat. Every few weeks they put in day old chicks. After a few weeks men turn up at 4 - 5am in the morning in huge noisy lorries and catch the broiler hens and take them away for slaughter. Quite often they break their legs and wings when catching them. In the meantime the poor chicks grow up on their own dung including the trampled bodies of the ones that have died. You then have the noise as the chicken barn is scraped out with tractors and the manure piled up before the next lot come in. For a few weeks there is no smell and then as the broilers chicks get bigger and the manure deeper the smell is horrendous. There is also a permanent fly problem with any intensive animal raising nearby you will always have a lot of flies in your house.

Please be careful and be sure you know what you are buying. You will I am sure also be aware that you will not be able to get planning permission to turn any buildings into habitation if they are within so many metres of buildings containing livestock. A sensible french rule to cut down on the associated health problems of living too near livestock.

[Iceni]

IMO you should stay well clear of any intensive farming activity. It seems that there are rules in France as to the number of animals that can be kept in buildings close to houses BUT if you buy you will (probably) be bound to the numbers already there.

The smell of big heaps of chicken manure has to be suffered to be believed - far worse I think that than cow or horse.

As to any postive - rental income,  I suppose but cannot think of any other.

John