We'll return to the Neighbors series tomorrow, as we actually have news to report in our fair city, and the topic is
chicken farming:
The New Brighton City Council voted Tuesday night not to ban backyard chicken coops. The issue has divided the city for months between chicken advocates and chicken opponents.
New Brighton formed an "Urban Farming Task Force" in 2013. Finally, on May 12, the council considered a new ordinance that would restrict the number of chickens allowed at one household by the acreage of the property. The more acreage, the more chickens would be allowed up to 18 chickens.
On Tuesday night, the council voted 4-1, with councilmember Gina Bauman in the negative, to allow no more than six chickens per household. It was noted that in a city with 6,000 homes, there are approximately 30 that hold chickens.
KARE decided to feature an Irondale student as the face of suburban animal husandry:
One of those is the O'Neil home on Long Lake Road, who have had chickens for four years.
"We checked with the City of New Brighton and at that time they said there was no restriction and so we got six chickens, baby chicks and we built the coop and we've had chickens ever since," said Julie O'Neil.
The brain-child of raising the chickens was Riley O'Neil, 16, an Irondale High School sophomore. O'Neil cares for 12 chickens including two roosters on the family's two and a half acre property. Riley's father built an elaborate coop for the hens and males.
Riley reacted strongly to a proposed ordinance that would have banned all backyard poultry from New Brighton.
"Well, quite frankly, I find it outrageous," said Riley. "We called four years ago when we got ours to make sure that there was no issue whatsoever. It is just ridiculous."
A couple of observations:
- There aren't many properties in New Brighton that are 2.5 acres. Most of the lots in our neighborhood are about 1/4 acre. What might work for the family that is featured in the story would be problematic in most parts of the city.
- The city has banned roosters. That means I won't get a wakeup call from a rooster and I'll just have to rely on more traditional sounds, like the huge trains that rumble through our neighborhood.
- Chickens and their coops aren't particularly pleasant, but the limit should keep things from getting out of hand. Having said that, I also suspect that this decision isn't the end of the issue. I have a feeling that the nuisance factor is only going to rise.
- What I'm curious about is whether the chickens will attract predators, because I know the predators are already around. I've already seen foxes and a coyote within a block or two of our house. We're now seeing a trio of wild turkeys just about every day wandering the streets. You never used to see such things around town, but now you do. I fully expect to see Marlin Perkins one of these days.
3 comments:
You and Marlin can sit in the boat while Jim wrestles the wild turkeys into a trash bag.
My wife is an advocate of raising chickens and has been before the city council here twice as it considers the question. We think they'll likely go along with it in general, with the afore-mentioned ban on roosters. You need to live a long, long way away from a rooster in order for it not to bother you. My twin nieces are raising chickens, and love it. They are very diligent, going out at 6 a.m. each day to clean the coop and ground and collect eggs. They started with four; other neighbors also got involved - and ended up "donating" their hens to my nieces after a short time. They now have 13, but the property is of decent size and they have a sizable coop - and plenty of eggs!
i grew up in an urban environment with a yard full of chickens. we usually had about a dozen (sometimes a few less), that wandered the yard freely (larger than average yard) and went to the coop at night. with plenty of yard to roam and scratch, we didnt have the cleanliness issues of birds locked up together.
it was awesome.
now, for those who may oppose the keeping of a few birds... just let them know that every bird in somebody's yard is one less bird living the cruel life of a battery hen.
I grew up next door to a family that had chickens....it was OK, no huge smell or anything like a factory farm operation. That's really what you need--just a law that says if you have a huge stench of feces or such, that that is prohibited. Otherwise it's a great way of keeping grass, weeds, and bugs down and fresh eggs on the plate.
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