| Current laws prohibit animals that are dangerous or noisy. Chickens - hens specifically, because I'm not asking them to lift the ban on roosters - are neither dangerous nor noisy. Well, they cluck. They don't cluck very loudly, and they don't cluck at all at night.
I gave 4 reasons why hens are desirable pets:
1. They are fun pets. They are very social and can be quite docile as well.
2. They give you eggs. Depending on the hens' diet, the eggs can be more nutritious than those bought in a store, with better fats, less cholesterol, and more vitamins.
3. They eat things we don't want, like kitchen scraps, weeds, and bugs.
4. Their poop is useful fertilizer.
Additionally, it should be noted that chickens require about 2 sq ft per bird in a coop (or 4 sq ft per bird in a chicken run). Also, it takes 4-5 chickens to poop as much as 1 average dog. In other words, we aren't talking about a major odor problem here. Nor are we talking about an animal that requires a large yard. As for the noise, chickens have the lovely habit of putting themselves to bed every night when it gets dark. During the hours when noise from animals would be especially unwelcome, your chickens will be roosting and asleep. And even during the daytime, they just aren't that loud compared to turkeys or roosters - or compared to dogs.
Last, I noted that this was a common change in laws cities were making around the country and I would be glad to provide examples of what others have done so we can make our laws right for us. A good idea is to outlaw problems associated with chickens rather than outlawing chickens themselves. For example, you can require that the chickens be kept in a coop that is well-maintained. You can ban slaughtering birds in a residential zone. You might require that people get a chicken license and register with the city. Some places say the chickens need to be a certain number of feet from any neighbor's property, although I hope our city doesn't do that. I certainly didn't make that suggestion.
(Quite truthfully, I spent the last several days on a farm with a flock of chickens, turkeys, and guineas right outside my bedroom window. When I napped during the day, I couldn't hear the hens at all. But oh boy could I hear everybody else! And the roosters went off at 3am last night! Still, given the lack of a noise problem associated with hens, I hope there's no restriction on how far they must be from the neighbors. That is a method that is sometimes used to effectively ban chickens, actually, by requiring them to be so far away from the nearest neighbors that nobody's yard is big enough to qualify.)
One of the council members asked if roosters were required to make chickens lay eggs. The answer is no. It's kind of like a human female - you still ovulate and get your period even with no men around. You just can't have a baby without a man. Same for chickens.
The council decided to pursue the matter at a later meeting. One man from the city government gave me his contact info and remarked that the city is quite interested in sustainable food production. I need to write him a formal letter requesting a zoning law change to allow small flocks of hens in residential zones. I will do that, and I don't know where we go from there. Presumably the matter will come up at a future city council meeting but I don't know when or in what fashion.
Previous installments in my chicken project:
Part 1: Initial Planning for Chickens
Part 2: Oops, it's not legal |
