A city councillor in London wants to make it legal to raise chickens in residential back yards.
He’s clucking about farm fresh eggs for breakfast and he appears to mostly wants his young daughter to be able to experience her own petting zoo. Several cities, including Guelph and Brampton, allow chickens to be raised by homeowners but the whole concept ruffles my feathers. I’ve known some chickens in my day and have had experience with a coop or two. Chickens poop a lot. That’s also why geese are prohibited in city limits, except of course those in public parks where they apply a fresh layer of slippery poop every hour or so. Feathers fly and seeds get spread and chickens wander with no regard for property lines or even bothering to make a courtesy call before dropping in on the neighbours.
The push to buy local food is a good concept but there are plenty of eggs currently available from actual farmers who know what they’re doing with their live animals. I do not want to live next to a hobby chicken farmer no matter how many fresh eggs he gives me. The councillor claims raising chickens is an answer for people living in poverty. It’s a spin on the old “teach a man to fish” concept rather than simply handing him one. I agree with teaching a man to fish but I don’t think it’s a good idea for him to suddenly start running his own fish farm.