We fought for Chickens and bees in our local city last winter. We had to get approval with the planning and zoning commission and the city council. They denied us except for one old farmer who sat on the city council, his comment, "if you want chickens and bees and you don't mind work, who the hell am I to dictate to you what you can and can't do with providing for you and your family." Even though we lost because the city had a specific ban against both, we were trying for an exception. They denied us on smell, yep that's right, in the middle of IA they were worried about 6 chickens in a coop smelling up a small town. We had cited local ordinances from bigger cities that allowed chckens and bees and they still said to us No because that's what we get when we move to a big town that doesn't want smells. Mind you, this town was 1200 people, 30 minutes from Des Moines metro (where they allowed chickens/bees) out in the middle of nowhere. Plus the fact that two blocks in any direction from my house was a farm with 80 head cattle and two farms with pigs.
What did we do? We sold our house this year and are looking for an acreage as far away from stupid crap like that, that we can afford to get to.