Tricia Reed and Shanon Hilton want chickens. The Yorkton residents believe that bringing chickens into the City of Yorkton could have benefits for the residents and they presented City Council their views on why urban chickens are valuable, and ways to minimize the risks and problems associated with them.
Reed says raising chickens in the back yard of the city can have a number of benefits. The most obvious is that they are a source of fresh, antibiotic-free eggs. She notes that eggs aren't the only food that chickens can help grow, as they are also a source of nitrogen-rich fertilizer for growing produce. Locally produced food, Reed notes, is important for food security and reduces transportation costs. The bird can also be fed table scraps, she says, which reduces municipal waste.
Another benefit to having chickens is pest control, one of the things which inspired Reed to request the city to allow chickens in city limits. She notes that both her and Hilton had a slug problem in their gardens which they were having difficulty controlling. She says that she knew chickens could control the pest from when she lived outside of the city, and that lead to her looking at the bylaws to see if it was possible.
There's also an educational component to raising chickens, as kids would interact with the animals and learn where their food comes from.
Naturally, there are concerns about chickens in an urban environment, and Reed and Hilton spoke to other cities which do allow the animal to see what the main issues were. Hilton says that he most common complaint was rogue chickens escaping the back yard. The solution to this problem, she says, is to have clear by-laws requiring a properly enclosed coop with an attached run. Wings would be clipped, free-ranging would not be permitted, and coops would be required to be locked at all times.
Hilton also addressed other concerns people may have. For people concerned about noise, roosters are the only ones that crow, and would be prohibited. Hens, by contrast, are significantly quieter, and she describes them as no more loud than the average dog.
When it comes to the smell of chicken manure, Hilton says that proper bedding and regular cleaning would keep odor at a minimum, and they also propose that no more than six chickens be permitted on a property at a time. The smell from six chickens would be negligible, Hilton argues.
Concerns about diseases like avian flu are unfounded, she says, since the disease is spread by wild birds and chickens would not increase the risk. She also says that they wouldn't encourage other livestock, because chickens are the only livestock small enough to be practical in an urban environment.
Their proposed bylaw also states that only those registered with the city would be allowed to raise chickens, in order to better keep tabs and ensure people are doing it properly. Chickens would be raised for personal use only, not for the purpose of raising meat, and slaughter or attempts to euthanize would be prohibited on the property.
City council decided to refer the matter to administration, in order to give them the chance to speak to other cities about the proposal and their experiences with chickens in their jurisdiction.
