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Chickens in the backyard could be reality after proposal draws support in council

Timothy Schafer
By Timothy Schafer
March 31st, 2019

The idea of backyard chickens in the free-range the backyard spaces of Nelson might finally be set to fly.

The city is again scratching at the possibility of drafting legislation to allow the egg-laying denizens to exist in city yards, after several previous near attempts in 2009 and 2011.

Nelson resident Anne Simonen has petitioned city council with information regarding a proposal to amend the current Animal Control Bylaw to allow backyard hens within city limits.

She has been living in Nelson for two years and when she first arrived she was shocked that the city did not allow backyard chickens.

There were communities more urban than Nelson and also more rural than Nelson that were able to manage backyard hens without incident, said Simonen, and yet the city still hesitated in allowing the birds.

“So I think in a community like this there is a decent mandate to do it,” she said. “I have not found a municipality that has cancelled hen ownership after it has happened.”

When the city first contemplated allowing chickens in 2009 it would have been one of the few in the nation to do so, but now the list of municipalities has grown considerably, with major centres such as Vancouver in that mix.

And what most municipalities have found, Simonen noted, was how few problems there really were in allowing the birds.

“Nearly every concern about backyard hens can be mitigated or completely eliminated with a properly developed bylaw,” she said.

The concerns include the hens are noisy. But the noise of a laying hen is about 67 decibels for about five minutes. Barking dogs are 100 dB.

“And hens typically lay in their hutch, and only during the day, further reducing noise,” Simonen noted. 

The claim that hens attract predators and vermin was also refuted. Simonen explained that a regional district report stated that fruit trees and garbage attracted bears more than the chickens did. Proper care of the coop space also reduced vermin attractants, she added.

“A well designed coop will help prevent predators,” Simonen said.

And a clean coop keeps down the smell. Most animal control bylaws require a coop to be kept clean, said Simonen in her presentation to council, and regulate the amount of manure allowed to be kept on-site. 

In 2009 city council asked city staff to research backyard hens in Nelson, with staff proposing a bylaw amendment, but the proposal was postponed until more research could be done.

Two years later a proposal to amend the animal control bylaw to allow backyard hens passed. At the time the council passed a motion that staff proceed with public consultation, but the process ended there.

But this time around the matter appeared to draw much support from council. Several councillors voiced their support of the move to allow backyard hens.

Coun. Keith Page made the motion to refer the matter to city staff to appear at the next business meeting of council.

City manager Kevin Cormack asked council to not rush too fast, and put the issue on the agenda for the priority setting meeting in April, since city staff were already overloaded with new work and pending legislation.

Proposed city bylaw

Simonen assembled much information on backyard chickens, including the possible parameters of an animal control bylaw that included chickens:

  • five-metre setback from a neighbour’s doors or windows with a one m. property line setback;
  • maximum four hens with a minimum four months old at adoption and no roosters;
  • minimum coop space and run space per hen up to nine square metres and three m. tall;
  • coop to be enclosed on all sides, with sides buried to prevent burrowing vermin and predators;
  • feed to be kept secured from rodents and other animals outside the hen enclosure;
  • no slaughtering or sale of eggs, manure or other products; and
  • registration fee required.

— Source: Anne Simonen

 

 

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