Hens in the Hood

[Dog Walker]

Had dinner last night with a friend from Sarasota.  He's a prof at New College.  He has been at the front of an effort to allow people to have hens in their backyards in Sarasota for the last few years and they have just gotten the County Commission to give them a three year, experimental period for keeping urban hens.  He told us about his success.

He named his group, CLUCK, for Citizens Lobbying for Urban Hens.  He put together information from all of the cities in the US that allow urban hens, and there are a lot of them including New York, San Francisco, Kansas City, etc.

He was able to answer all of the objections, noise from roosters, smell, rats, loose chickens, slaughter, egg sales with objective experience from the other cities and was politically clever about the public hearings to get his victory for common sense.

Here is a link to their website:

http://sarasotacluck.blogspot.com/

There are a lot of "illegal" chicken keepers here in Jacksonville.  Wouldn't it be great if we could join the other cities in the country and have our own, fresh, antibiotic, e-coli free eggs?

[ChriswUfGator]

So let me get this straight. Sarasota, one of the most expensive locales in the state, welcomes chickens. But, somehow, the property-value obsessed social-climbers at SPAR convinced everybody they had to be rounded up and killed in Springfield because they were bad for the neighborhood? I guess I'll start putting in $50k offers on some of those million dollar waterfront houses in Sarasota, since according to SPAR they'll be worthless anyday now that they have those public menace chickens around.

[KenFSU]

I think it's a great idea.

I also think this is one of the better thread titles I've seen on MJ

[avs]

Sustainable Springfield has been advocating for this too.  Not only Sarasota, but MOST cities in the US have amended their codes to allow backyard hens (no roosters) and 2-3 dairy goats, in addition to zoning for community gardens and urban farms.

I posted this on the Springfield Forum the other day - its a Q&A on the entire topic. http://www.myspringfield.org/General/urban-agriculture-q-a-a.html

I have also asked the urban core CPAC and SPAR for a letter of support, which they are going to discuss at their August Board meeting (my fingers are crossed).  I have letters of support from the Childhood Obesity Coalition and Slow Foods First Coast.  I have also been in touch with San Marco Preservation and am going to be reaching out to RAP next.

The Planning Dept is open to this the next step is getting city council on board.  If you support these efforts (via annual permits, I think is the best strategy) WRITE YOUR CITY COUNCIL rep.  You can cc us if you want so we can keep up with all the letters, sustainablespringfield@yahoo.com

We also have a paper and an online petition http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/pro-hens-and-goats-and-we-vote/

[avs]

For those worried about property values, I say look at Seattle, who already amended their code and instead of repealing it because of "decreased property values" they just amended it to allow MORE food producing animals by residents.

An annual permitting process that sets limits on number of animals/lot size is the way most cities do it and ITS WORKING. 

This zoning change would not affect  communities with deed restrictions, of course.

[Dog Walker]

Sarasota now allows up to four hens (CLUCK wanted six) and they must be kept in the back yard or a single family residence.

Pretty restrictive, but it's a start....a beak under the tent flap?

[Bativac]

Someone off of Hendricks Ave near HAB has (or had, anyway, as of a couple years ago) an extremely vocal collection of chickens. I know there was a rooster and a couple hens at least. They were around for awhile so I can't imagine there were too many complaints. I think it'd be great if more people were allowed to keep hens. I wouldn't keep any but I'd buy eggs off my neighbors.

Whatever happened to the chickens that used to roam around MOSH?

[Intuition Ale Works]

We used to have 5 hens at our house in Riverside/Avondale until raccoons got into our coop and killed them all on Monday.
This the second such hit made on our coop and it's inhabitants.

My goal this weekend is to turn our coop into Fort Knox or at least "Raccoon proof" it.

[avs]

Most cities do not allow roosters because of the noise and they aren't needed for eggs anyway.  Hens are generally pretty quiet animals, as are dairy goats (uncastrated males are loud and generally not suitable for city living).  I have 8 hens and 2 dairy goats on my 1/2 acre in Springfield and my neighbors love them.  The kids come by and feed the goats all the time and try to get them to baaaa, but my goats are pretty quiet.

The only ones who mind my animals are the city, who is trying to make us get rid of them.

We give eggs to all of our neighbors, who are not so well off and probably would not buy organic free range eggs.  So we are able to provide them with our overage of organic free range.  The hens don't cost us anything.  A local brewery gives us spent grain which I mix with whey from the cheese I make from the goats and I feed the girls that every morning.  I clipped their wings and they roam the yard during the day and we give them kitchen scraps, which they love too.

They are great pets and have the bonus of being a "pet with benefits"

[Jumpinjack]

Those CLUCK folks have a saying about noisy crowing roosters (or hens): If It Crows, It Goes!
Agreeing to a condition as simple as this helped them get their city council approval.

[avs]

I don't wanna live next to a noisy rooster or goat either! 

[ChriswUfGator]

The only ones who mind my animals are the city, who is trying to make us get rid of them.

The City just responds to complaints, and those complaints are coming from somewhere. I think we all know where.

[Dog Walker]

SHHHH!  Don't admit you have livestock in your garden.  Let's just get it legal!

We used to have 5 hens at our house in Riverside/Avondale until raccoons got into our coop and killed them all on Monday.
This the second such hit made on our coop and it's inhabitants.

My goal this weekend is to turn our coop into Fort Knox or at least "Raccoon proof" it.

Having lots of raccoons around is a bad side effect of the well intentioned "cat colonies" of spayed and neutered cats around.  The raccoons live off the cat food.  The catch, spay, neuter and release programs are gradually reducing the number of feral cats, but our birds are suffering in the meantime.

Real bummer about your chickens.

We have a neighbor who has been feeding some of the clipped ear cats on her front porch.  A couple of weeks ago at night while sitting on her porch and talking on her cell phone, she reached down and absently petted one of the cats.  The fur felt funny to her and she looked down to discover that she was petting a raccoon.

[avs]

The City just responds to complaints

We have had our animals for quite awhile.  Then one day the code inspector was citing the house behind us, you can see directly into our yard from that hous's yard, and the next day we received a citation.   I don't mind talking about it  because the only way to get the ordinance changed is to talk to people and help educate people on small-scale food prodcing animal keeping. 

[John P]

http://www.myspringfield.org/General/urban-agriculture-q-a-a.html
There is an urban agriculture question and answer by Sustainable Springfield on myspringfield right now. It discusses hens and chickens.