Should we be able to have chickens?

Yes! But I’d rather re-phrase the question to a statment: Government should not be allowed to take away our chickens. There are already lots of urban hens in RVA quietly under wraps.

Chickens are daily egg layers at maturity and only for about a year. So, one has to think about what becomes of the chicken at that point. Keep as pet or eat.

Don’t get me wrong- I am a huge supporter of the urban chicken movement…
but we also have to consider that not all people are good pet owners- whether that’s dogs, cats, or in this case- chickens!

Farm animals can have a lot of pungent smells associated with the benefit of getting your fresh eggs in the morning. If the caretakers of these urban chickens aren’t diligent in cleaning up the waste- all of church hill (and richmond for that matter) could end up smelling like a purdue factory!

The question is- how could we ensure that people would clean up after their friendly beaked pets? Do we solely rely on good manners? Everyone should know by the amount of dog crap i barely avoid stepping in on a daily basis- that people as a whole, just don’t have good manners…

so how would we proceed?

I would love to have a couple of chickens. This spring I saw chicks for sale at Southern States. They were like $15-$20 for about 6. I had no idea that chicken raising was popular enough around here to sell chicks out of tubes at Southern States. But I appreciate Diana’s point. And some serious thought would have to put into how to protect them from the neighborhood’s ferel cats. I don’t know if I would be able to get my act together to have chickens, but I would be happy to see others on the Hill have them and I would be happy to trade some vegetables from my garden for some fresh eggs. That reminds me. Whatever happened to the lady with the geese. I haven’t seen her or her geese for a while.

The lady with the geese is still around, I walked by her house a week or two ago and the geese scared the crap out of my puppy, luckily they were behind the fence. It was hilarious.

Are cats really a threat??

http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_gifs/5594/cat+vs+chicken/

I’d like to address a few of these points, if I may.
Here is a little presentation with facts about urban chickens you might find helpful: http://www.slideshare.net/CampusBookstore/chickunz-v6

I wouldn’t worry about the cats with chickens as they are in a flock and as big as a cat (about 9 pounds when fully grown). And speaking of size and numbers, it would take about ten hens to make up the poundage of the average lab, no? So asking for a few laying hens, responsibly (the usual flock is 3-4, with up to two flocks), doesn’t even equal the impact of one lab.

Know there are many, many hens already amongst you, yet no complaints, no extra staff hours for anyone, yet how many complaints & outreach happens a year for dogs? Just to consider.

As of course hens would be penned, clean up would be affecting the family with the hens, not anyone else. Ours were “free range” within our high fenced in back yard. They tend to congregate under the shrubs (more grubs, yum) than the lawn, so it was never messy and our rose bushes loved the fertilizer and that they ate every japanese beetle that dared land in the yard.

I assure you our coop never smells. Purdue factories are gross. Poultry farms that coop up hundreds of hens in dark confines on top of each other…that’s why backyard chicken proponents are so passionate about escaping that gross, cruel industry to instead raise a few hens on grass and sunshine, while improving their residential soil.

And I agree: this is a food right.
As a recent councilman from Albany said,

?[The measure passed 8-7, with the deciding vote cast by 15th Ward Councilman Frank Commisso Jr., whose intentions were not widely known before Monday night.

Commisso, who represents uptown neighborhoods that had been the source of some opposition to the idea, admitted that — unlike partisans on both sides of the issue — he was not particularly passionate about it either way.
But at the end of the day, Commisso concluded, “I don’t think the government should be telling people, ‘Don’t have birds in your backyard.’ “]

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Chickens-join-city-s-urban-sprawl-1362095.php#ixzz1LJHXjN00

Kind regards,
Copeland Casati

I’m totally in favor of city chickens and I live next door to some.