Chickens in our backyards
Today's No. 2 editorial.
If you happen to see someone approaching you in a chicken costume this weekend, don't cry foul. It's likely Amy Williams, an Elon law school student. She and Brian Talbert have been raising chickens in the yard of their home near Lindley Park.
Williams is donning the costume to draw attention to her quest to get the city ordinance changed to allow more residents to house chickens. Or chicken coops, to be more exact.
The couple received a notice from the city telling them they were violating an ordinance that requires chicken coops to be at least 50 feet from all property lines. That prohibits most people in Greensboro from keeping chickens. Yet, increasingly, Greensboro residents are keeping chickens in their yards.
Tired of factory-farmed eggs and poultry, wanting their kids -- and themselves -- to be closer to nature, people want “grow your own” to include chickens as well as veggies. Some cities make it easy: Raleigh, for example, has never prohibited raising chickens. In other cities, such as Durham, poultry lovers are doing what Williams is going to do this weekend: circulate a petition to gain support for revising the rules.
Some city dwellers complain that chickens are noisy and smelly. But surely, an ordinance can be written to address these problems: Outlawing roosters would likely take care of the noise problem while setting a limit on brood size would limit smells.
Heck, allowing chickens may even be good for economic development in the city. Tour the blogosphere and you'll see that a variety of stylish chicken coops (especially in places like Seattle) abound. Think of the carpentry jobs! Former write-in mayoral candidate Billy Jones already is blogging about being able to build mobile pens, or chicken tractors, for city folk interested in giving their birds a free-range experience.
Allowing residents to raise poultry is an easy way to make the city more livable. Let's hope the city doesn't chicken out.
Comments (6)
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You make some reasonable suggestions, Doug. Here's another possibility: Allow anybody to have a certain number of chickens and a coop if they can abide by the buffer requirements but also allow would-be-chicken owners to be granted a variance on buffers and numbers if their neighbors approve.
I would be thankful for the existing ordinance if a neighbor wanted 20 chickens and a coop on the property line next to my bedroom, but 8 chickens 25 feet from the property line, while not in compliance with the existing ordinance, wouldn't trouble me. Why should the city object in a case where neighbors agree?
Posted on February 23, 2008 10:53 AM
Allen,
For the life of me with all that is wrong with Greensboro I cannot understand why anyone would complain to the City as one of Amy's neighbors have done. Thank you for covering this story.
For those who come behind me with anti-chicken rants:
Have you ever tasted an egg laid just this morning? It is much better than any grocery store egg.
Do you realize "fresh" grocery store eggs are sometimes well over a month old and can be 6 months old?
Have you ever laid awake all night and listened to a dog bark? I promise you've never heard a chicken howling at the moon all night.
Chickens make better neighbors than people.
All the children in my neighborhood love my chickens-- they learn about nature from my chickens and in watching me grow vegetables and my neighbors line up for free eggs.
No one has ever died from a chicken attack. Can we say the same about dogs?
Chickens kill mice and rats.
When properly cared for chickens do not stink. If your neighbor's chickens stink I recommend you call the ASPCA over the City as they are better equipped to deal with the abuse.
Chickens love to eat Japanese Beatles, grubs, slugs, ticks, spiders and other critters you don't want in or around your house and yard.
Backyard chickens can safely eat things that usually end up in landfills so they reduce expenses to Greensboro taxpayers-- that is, when code enforcement isn't wasting time harrassing folks like Amy.
Several of our local urban chicken farmers do so for no other reason than to feed Greensboro's homeless. When all my birds start laying I'll have extra eggs to give to the homeless.
Outlawing roosters won't stand up in court and is an easy law to get around. (That's a wild rooster, catch him if you can.) And Greensboro already has reasonable brood limitations based on the square footage available for grazing.
Fact is: I don't know of any backyard chicken farmers who want to turn our yards into commercial chicken farms as most of us detest commercial chicken farms with more reason than the average citizen.
A neighbor of mine asked if I'd mind if he raised goats and I told him I'd trade eggs for cheese. Goats are also better neighbors than people.
Again thanks.
Posted on February 23, 2008 11:18 AM
Ooops, sorry, Allen.
Posted on February 23, 2008 12:35 PM
Actually, Elma Sabo wrote the chicken editorial. I just posted it.
Posted on February 23, 2008 12:38 PM
Deep Roots Market officially stands in favor of adjusting the ordinance to allow some chickens to be raised!
Billy the Blogging Poet said:
Backyard chickens can safely eat things that usually end up in landfills.
I'll add that chickens eat just about anything that can be composted, and that we produce several gallons of compost a day at our store via the produce section. Occasionally people come to pick it up to supplement their compost piles, but we often have to discard it! If more people could raise chickens, we wouldn't have to.
Let's back Williams and Talbert. Their cause represents a significant step for Greensboro in sustainability: what if we could produce our own food, without transporting it in gas-guzzling trucks? Chickens may smell "fowl" if you get close enough, but we tolerate orange air quality days and Wendover Avenue!
Posted on February 23, 2008 5:14 PM
I'm the Marketing, Outreach, and Owner Services Director for Deep Roots, if anyone would like to contact me regarding this issue.
marketing@deeprootsmarket.com
www.deeprootsmarket.com
Posted on February 23, 2008 5:17 PM