View from the Cheap Seats is an extension of the newsroom, which is frequently a site of heated debate on topics ranging from the extremely serious to the utterly ridiculous. In addition to the views of our three regular columnists Thom Barker, Calvin Daniels and Randy Brenzen printed here, please visit yorktonthisweek.com for additional web exclusive content by Michaela Miller and Devin Wilger.
This week: Should people be allowed to keep chickens in the city?
Maybe
It perhaps shows a little bit of city boy bias, but I was actually surprised Yorkton has an anti-poultry bylaw. Okay it’s a dog bylaw with a poultry clause, but that might be splitting feathers.
Yorkton is a city, of course, but it’s a small city smack dab in the middle of agriculture country. I would have thought a nod to that heritage might have included leniency on the urban egg-producing front.
But I looked it up and there it was in black and white. “It shall be unlawful to keep pigeons, live poultry, livestock, and/or bees, within the boundaries of the City of Yorkton,” the Animal Control Bylaw states.
For the record for the purposes of said bylaw poultry “means a chicken, turkey, duck, goose, or other domestic fowl.”
Livestock, by the way, includes everything else that one might consider traditional farm animals (i.e., cattle, horses, mules, asses, sheep, goats, or swine).
What is kind of amusing is the 24-page bylaw applies almost entirely to dogs.
Aside from that one paragraph that mentions “pigeons, live poultry, livestock, and/or bees,” the related definitions and Appendix “F” which lists the “Animals the Keeping of Which is Prohibited Within the City of Yorkton,” it is all about our canine pals.
Personally, I am not entirely sure whether I would find the keeping of poultry by my neighbours acceptable or not. I guess it is one of those things I would have to experience to know. I would like to think I would want to err on the side of maximum freedom, but on the other hand I am not too happy about people keeping yappy dogs and driving their GD recreational vehicles around the neighbourhood, so I suspect chickens could be annoying.
For certain, I would never keep chickens myself. As much as I love farm fresh eggs, I suspect it would simple be too much work. I’m indignant enough about having to mow my lawn; I can only imagine the upkeep of farm animals would be far more onerous.
Besides, I did the math. The best case scenario for city chickens appears to be about $10 a dozen for eggs. That’s just not worth it.
-Thom Barker
Heavy Maybe
In the beating heart downtown area, keeping chickens for urban farming purposes might not be the best idea. Chickens make A LOT of noise. If this isn’t something to get your neighbours complaining, the smell definitely will. Chickens, like any other animal you keep as a pet, require due care and attention. Maybe more so with these birds, as they poop freely. They also have the problems that many young schoolchildren face: bullies. Forget the cost and upkeep of your space, if you can find it downtown, for a moment to think about the social circles of birds. If you have bullies in your flock, your passive birds will have peck marks, feathers missing, etc. Unchecked, this could lead to more serious medical problems. Medical problems for birds aren’t inexpensive. Now, say if you live in a suburb, or just within city limits where you have the money and space to raise these creatures, it could be profitable for you and healthy for the birds. There are benefits to personal health, local economy and eco-health no doubt, but it seems we ignore the realities until we’re knee deep in noise complaints and chicken poop.
-Michaela Miller
More or less annoying than terrible dogs?
I think everyone has had a neighbor with irritating, constantly barking, rat-like dogs. These dogs are barking at all hours, for all reasons, and only seem to stop when they are sent inside the house. Everyone is familiar with them, whether they know someone who has them, know someone who suffers from their constant vocal outbursts, or just knows that they exist, because they were in the city when these dogs were outside. But you can never ban dogs, no matter how irritating some specific breed of yappy little garbage dog might be, because most dogs are lovely companion animals and you don’t want to accidentally ban the good ones.
So if we consider backyard farming, we have a baseline - would they be more or less annoying than these awful dogs? A chicken is not as loud as a pointless dog, nor is it as pointless – a chicken brings you eggs, these tiny dogs just bring you irritation. So long as you could contain the smell of a chicken – and growing up around them, it’s not really all that bad – I would argue that they could fit into an urban environment without much difficulty. They’re not as loud or as annoying as the dogs, and if they’re an irritation the neighbour could potentially be placated with fresh eggs. Going beyond just chickens, other small animals and poultry could also qualify, many of them are relatively quiet, some of them can be even be effective pest control – the farm where I grew up used ducks to manage the mosquito population, and it actually worked pretty well. Naturally, you couldn’t have a cow, no matter how useful a cow might be, because they’re too large, too smelly and can be just as loud as a tiny pointless dog. So long as an animal is less irritating than an animal that spends all of its time raging against such formidable enemies as the wind and trees, the city can handle it. You would have to have limits on the number of chickens you could raise, because a yard filled with hens might get more annoying than the irritating garbage canine, but we have a baseline on which we can make the decision. I’d greatly prefer living next to a couple chickens compared to a dog that never stops barking.
Devin Wilger
Embrace the idea
The topic of whether Yorkton residents should be able to have laying hens in their backyards is not a new one for me.
The issue came up at Council a couple of years ago and was handled about as smoothly as you would expect a blind juggler to handle a few chicken eggs.
They dodged the issue completely handing it off to their Protective Services Commission as I recall, because clearly a rogue hen would be a public safety consideration of epic proportions.
Which of course begs two questions, why the Commission even bothered to have an opinion? And that they did why would they say no?
The initial public request to allow a small number of laying hens was made with the suggestion they create a test case to ensure regulations, such as enclosures and cleanliness standards were sufficient, which was a rather common sense approach to asking for something new.
That said the ‘new’ would be to Yorkton. Laying hens are allowed in small to major centres across North America without the issues of other regular allowed animals in a city setting, cats digging in flower beds to deposit unwanted fertilizer, neighbouring dogs barking to annoy, wake the baby, or frighten grandma, and of course dog attacks sending people to hospital.
Given the choice between a big dog breed with a lousy disposition, and a propensity to bark as a neighbour, or half a dozen Chantecler hens in a fenced-in run, I’d take the birds anytime.
And the chickens come with the added benefit of promoting self-sufficiency in food, understanding where our food comes from, and allowing owners to raise them as they are comfortable in terms of feed additives.
Backyard layers are an idea that should be embraced, not avoided.
-Calvin Daniels
Cartoon view
Should people be allowed to keep chickens in an urban area in order to supply themselves with eggs and meat?
Arguments can be made for both sides, but in the end whichever side I’m on is obviously the correct one (right?).
The side I’m on is, no, people shouldn’t be allowed to keep chickens in the city.
Why? Well for one, chickens stink. It’s not like keeping a dog or a cat in the city.
Chicken defecation contains both urine and feces, and while somewhat easy to clean up (if you keep on top of it), it’s a horrible smell and, in a horribly ventilated area, it could be very dangerous due to the ammonia gas that is given off when the nitrogen in the waste decomposes (yeah, I went science on your butts).
They’re also noisy. Chickens cluck and make their chicken noises all day, starting as soon as the sun rises. Plus, with chickens come roosters, and they’re the awful birds that sound off as soon as the sun comes up.
And if people were allowed to have chickens in the city then you know what comes next, right? Henery Hawk and Foghorn Leghorn high jinks and the like.
-Randy Brenzen
