Continuing with the recent bird theme, today I received an inquiry from a resident about keeping egg-laying hens in the City. This is the second time in four months someone has asked me about this. A bit of quick research shows this is becoming a popular trend. A few examples:
- Urban Chickens addendum: Allowing Vancouverites to Raise Chickens Fact Sheet
- Waterloo Hen Association by-law proposal
- Urban Hen Movement
Currently, our by-laws severely limit the raising of any livestock within the City, but the trend away from factory farming and toward locally grown food is giving the laying hen hope for a better future as a food-producing urban pet. What do you think? Would something like this “fly” here? Or would it be dead as a Dodo?
I’m a big fan of putting the infrastructure of everyday life where it’s more obvious (I though the Waste Watch plant should have been located on the Experimental Farm: we would have ended up with a more beautiful, cleaner plant and would have been forced to confront our waste every day).
So I think urban chickens are a good idea, and I’m sure that with a well-crafted by-law the annoyance-of-neighbours factor could be reduced to a manageable level (i.e. limit the numbers, dictate proper housing standards, etc.).
When I lived in thee country I had a large flock of hens. I loved them and had a great time tending them and enjoying the fresh eggs. But here’s the thing about chickens – they are vermin magnets. You cannot keep a henhouse clean enough to make it unattractive to rodents. And the skunks love the eggs. And certain of the larger mammals are very fond of the chickens themselves. They phrase “fox in the henhouse” didn’t come from nowhere – and you haven’t lived until you have laid in bed and listened to a fox decimate your chicken flock.
So, though I’d love to have chickens myself, I am glad they don’t allow them in town. I’ll get my fresh eggs at the farmer’s market.
Many residents in Ward 3 would argue you haven’t lived until you have laid in bed and listened to 10,000 crows directly overhead.
I have to say that I am for the urbanization of agriculture, with all of its’ joys and follies. Foxes in the hen house, racoons eating my crop of corn and the unspeakable joy of eating fresh produce from my garden-cum-front lawn. Beautiful.
This aired on CBC News Sunday just a few days after I posted this.
http://www.cbc.ca/sunday/2009/03/032909_5.html
My grandparents used to have chickens [delicious I might add] on Summer Street in town, canned them every fall. I don’t remember anything negative about them.
Crows don’t like pellet guns or starter pistols.
My grandparents, parents, and now our family have always had a backyard garden. When you grow it yourself you know everything about it and nothing from the store could possibly tase better.
Cheers,
Tracey