Illegal Fowl - Legal Article for Government Officials considering changing their Local Chicken Ordin

[jbouvier]

I wanted to let I just published an article that is meant to be a guide for local officials looking to change their chicken ordinances. The article is called

Illegal Fowl: A Survey of Municipal Laws Relating to Backyard Poultry and a Model Ordinance for Regulating City Chickens


And it was just published in the Environmental Law Reporter out of Washington D.C.

You can access the article for free at a website called SSRN (stands for Social Science Research Network). Here is the link:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2119494

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments on the article. I look forward to hearing from you all here.

 

[J-Sanders]

Sorry, I do not believe in limits as low as 6 chickens and no roosters. This does not allow for a sustainable flock. But then again I do not believe in living in urban areas either. There will be some other folks along in due time I am sure.

Thanks for sharing your work with us.

Jim

 

[ellent]

Wow, this is great!

I wish it had been available 3 years ago when we were campaigning for a chicken ordinance in Columbia, MO. As it happens, we came up with (and passed) something quite similar to your model ordinance.

One issue that you didn't discuss that is included in ours is a restriction against selling eggs. This doesn't make sense to me, since there is a limit of 6 hens, but the idea was to keep flock sizes appropriate for the family in question. Personally, I think being able to sell a dozen eggs here or there might be a great help to some families, although I agree that backyard hens are probably cost-neutral at best.

I'm not sure I agree with the slaughter prohibition. So far I don't know of any slaughter operations that would handle say, 1 or 2 older, no-longer-productive hens. Again, the small flock size ought to solve that problem in general, and here in Missouri, people routinely hang deer in their yards or garages during deer season, so I can't see that I slaughtered chicken would be that much worse.

Last, I think the cleanliness language should be loose enough to allow deep litter, especially in colder climates. I would leave it at something like "the coop should be free of obnoxious odors and vermin" or something like that.

We have a 6-hen limit. I started with 4, and absolutely agree that there needs to be leeway for adding multiple birds at a time. I currently have 5, and anywhere between 3 and 5 good layers is adequate for my family of 4, with eggs to spare except in the winter.

The best thing about this is that you have done the legwork and can show how many places do find ways to make keeping chickens in cities possible, and give reasonable guidance for city councils and others who may not have the know-how, and may not want to do all this research. Thanks! I hope it gets widely distributed to chicken-ordinance advocates.

 

[ellent]

Oh, one last thing, I liked allowing the hens to be out if supervised (I don't know about caught IMMEDIATELY! : ) ), but you might also consider language which allows the use of a tractor in addition to a coop. I have a small one I use during the day when I want them in a specific part of the garden.

 

[mespe]

Thank you for writing that paper. I forwarded a copy to my city council.
I need to PM you re. the paper.

 

[pennyjjog]

Thank you for this letter!!! I just found out I was turned in for keeping my "girls" in my backyard..With this I can go into a meeting armed with 'facts' and try to sway the council to allow the residents to keep chickens..

After trying to download it I find I can't read a word of it..It's all scrambled. Any one have suggestions on how to unscramble it?

 

[mespe]

This post ought to be a sticky,,,

 

[bekisar]

Thank you for allowing us to have this paper as a PDF .