Rossland looks at how to handle backyard chickens. Regulate or educate?

 Why did the chicken cross the road? If it lives in Rossland, it may have been to head down to City Hall and support Rossland REAL Food as they presented to council on the merits of backyard chickens.

Coops have been hatching around many a backyard in the Golden City recently, providing a source of organic, naturally raised eggs, and poultry. in addition high altitude urban farmers have also enjoyed companionship and entertainment from our fine feathered friends. Not everyone in town has been entirely stoked on the concept, however, and few neighbours have rightly or wrongly had their feathers rustled by this avian invasion and have called for a coop coup.

Prompting the presentation from REAL Food this week was a comment by Councillor Kathy Wallace during her member's report at the June 13th regular council meeting. She noted that Rossland has no current bylaws regarding backyard chickens, suggesting council/staff should look into the issue. The City then asked REAL Food to make a presentation.

Consequently, on Monday evening, Rachel Roussin, Sarah Flood and Andrew Bennett put together a thorough, entertaining and enlightening presentation, despite technical issues with the city’s projector. Perhaps the largest disappointment in the projector's bulb burning out two slides into the presentation was the fact that council never got the chance to see a humourous and educational cartoon depicting the presentation's outline.

The general message, however, was that Rossland--and indeed the world--may well soon be facing the end of cheap oil, thus increasing the necessity of home-grown food. This, along with a plethora of equally compelling reasons to promote self sustaining activities such as backyard chicken raising, formed the core of the group's argument.

The group also noted that although Rossland doesn't have a specific chicken bylaw, several other existent bylaws combine to address many concerns neighbours and residents may have on the issue. Rossland’s Official Community Plan (OCP) also supports the practice indirectly in several sections including:

OCP Objective:

 “To support a wide range of agricultural practices within Rossland and preserve land to build local food production capacity.”

OCP Policies:

“Support the production, processing, distribution, and sale of locally grown products.”

“Urban agriculture is encouraged as a method to assist in providing daily food items, considering other community goals such as BearSmart.”

Recognizing that folks unfamiliar with the issue are likely to have concerns around backyard chickens, REAL Food walked through issues related to noise, wildlife attractants, potential for disease as well as animal welfare. In the process, the trio debunked some of the common myths and misconceptions associated with the practice.

As is the case in many issues, the core foundation of urban livestock farming is that of responsibility by the farmers. Through education, responsibility and healthy communication with neighbours the group contends that, in a residential neighbourhood, chickens can be as easy to cohabitate with as cats and dogs. They noted that, in terms of animal attractants, noise and potential for disease, the threat from backyard chickens is less than that associated with dogs or cats.

“Chickens are quieter than conversation, roosters crowing are quieter than dogs barking and all of those things are quieter than diesel trucks, lawnmowers and chainsaws, all of which are commonplace in Rossland,” explained Andrew Bennett.

Rossland’s current good neighbor bylaw which restricts noisy activities such as lawn mowing between 9:00 PM and 7:00 AM covers any potential concerns around noisy chickens.

It was also noted that 10 chickens produce less waste than a single 40lb dog and that given some thought to permaculture design when setting up a backyard farm, near perfect, waste-free systems can be established. Bennett, a strong advocate and practitioner of permaculture, is about to move his chicken coop directly under his kitchen window in an ever-evolving move toward the perfect design. Enabling him to drop compostable kitchen scraps out his window into the coops, then to be eaten by the chickens. Subsequently excreted as waste drops onto the slanted floor which then rolls right back into the garden as compost.

Whether or not chickens create an additional animal attractants was also an issue which weighed heavily in the discussion. Councilor Jill Spearn, supporting the concept but wanting to learn more, questioned whether or not chickens attract cougars, raccoons, bears or other wild carnivores into residential areas.

Bennett replied that “If they were accessible there would be an increase in the predator population, but if they are all behind screens, more people keeping cats would increase the population faster than more backyard chickens.”

This is where Rossland REAL Food has been championing backyard food production greatly, through an ongoing series of educational events, tours and seminars on everything from what vegetables grow best in Rossland, to how to build a sturdy coop to deter wildlife.

Over the past year REAL Food has held two chicken crawl events, touring the various coops around town, talking to owners, learning from one another and sharing knowledge about what works best. A testament to the interest in urban chickens, over 25 people have attended the initial crawls.

The desire for locally-grown and raised food is expected to shift from desire to necessity as noted by Bennett, who concluded that as well as being a sustainable food security measure, chickens might also become attractants for new two-legged residents.

“Cuba in 1989, when it suddenly didn’t get cheap oil or tractors from Russia anymore is the perfect example. We’ll soon enter a similar phase in human history where we’ll have to provide a lot of our needs without cheap energy. It’s going to happen in the backyard: that’s what happened in Cuba. More than 50% of their food is currently being produced in urban agriculture. Rossland can be on the forefront and is going to attract a lot of attention just for that. I think it’s an important attractant, but not a bear attractant.”