Petition for Backyard Chickens
The allure of fresh eggs daily and natural pest control is too much for some Toronto locavores, and despite the city's prohibition, some residents are quietly keeping chickens in their backyard. One midtown woman, we'll call her Toronto Chicken, has started an online petition to change that bylaw.
Toronto Chicken is not alone, in Toronto and elsewhere. As eating local food becomes more and more popular, urban dwellers are increasingly looking to their governments to loosen regulations regarding backyard non-commercial livestock.
Although the annonymous chicken keeper has quietly kept her birds for a year, she feel like it is time to go public and change the bylaws, making her chickens - Clucky, Sally and Hybie - legal residents of Toronto.
With the increased attention to and popularity of eating local food, and a dearth of backyard gardening resources, websites such as Backyard Chickens and The City Chicken have cropped up to satisfy those who want more than tomatoes from their yard.
Each year only a few complaints are received about neighbourhood chickens, suggesting that either not many people are keeping chickens, not many people mind that their neighbours are keeping chickens, or the $240 fine is a sufficient deterrent.
For Toronto Chicken, she unknowingly became an outlaw last July when she brought home her hens from an Orangeville farm that had slated them for food. The 1999 bylaw prohibiting certain animals in the city doesn't specifically mention chickens, but they fall under the Galliformes category.
Now, for this anonymous chicken keeper, the quest to legally keep her chickens - and continue collecting their eggs (a food item she hasn't had to buy in over a year) - has resulted in a website and petition as she bides her time until she's ready to make herself known. So far she's collected 342 signatures of support.
Although I don't have the backyard right now, I'd enjoy keeping chickens one day. My wife's Italian grandmother used to have one and she wishes she still did, as her garden always flourished with the extra feet and beak to control pests and a tasty egg each day. As Waterloo, Halifax and other cities around North America are reviewing their bylaws regarding chickens, it seems time for Toronto to do the same.
Photos courtesy of Toronto Chicken.
Comments (43)
Will they be tagged? Licensed? Vaccinated? Will there be an issue with hygiene? public health? Land value? Noise?
We need to do a study! We need to charge fees!
Seinfeld - The Voice
Kramer: I know it sounds pretty glamorous, but it's business as usual at Kramerica.
Dean Jones: As far as I can tell your entire enterprise is more than a solitary man with a messy apartment which may or may not contain a chicken.
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min 12:45 http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=3890566068573140475&q=the+voice+seinfeld&ei=vLp7SNvvNoWU-AG_nKGGCw&hl=en
Sean, it's only the roosters that make the noise. That said, roosters should be banned in the city, but I could care less about the hens. I had an apartment in a Japanese city of 200 000, and my neighbour kept a rooster. Nothing like getting woken up by an idiot bird at 4:30 with a beer/whiskey/sake hangover. Don't know how I restrained myself from making capon-soup for three years.
just don't eat eggs, and then you don't need chickens running around.. unless she's slaughtering them regularly for meat.
I understand the "eat local" thing, but this takes it a bit far.
TBL: Yes we do, because yes, those are the issues.
Anyone here ever been to (or rather downwind from) a chicken farm? I remeber in the real 1970s they sold live birds in Kensington and it was quaint and all, but downtown livestock was banned for a reason.
Hmmm, I'm conflicted on this one. I'd love to see more people using local in every way, but a city just isn't the ideal place for livestock. Interesting idea though. Go veg!
My family keeps about a dozen chickens on their farm. They don't make noise. The stink from them is barely noticeable. And in return everyone one the farm (8 people) has plenty of fresh, clean eggs for breakfast, baking, etc. All for only a few dollars per chicken. At the end of the Fall they will slaughter and freeze them all leaving several meals worth of meat to be eaten as well as all the extra bits that will be used for soups and other things.
The biggest thing I can see having to worry about in the city is protecting them from raccoons who like to rip the chickens open to get at the eggs inside them.
As for keeping livestock in the city, all I can say is when I was in Hong Kong it was quite common to find a corner store with chickens and other birds. The store clerks kill the chicken for you to take home.
It's these kinds of changes that people need to be willing to consider and accept. Going to your local big box grocer to buy a pack of two boneless skinless chicken breasts from chickens raised thousands of miles away is not sustainable.
I'm still a bit shocked that people eat breakfast.
On this topic, does anyone know how I can grow nutri-grain bars?
This is just becoming more and more like Mexico City, where no one respects any law. There is a reason (most) laws exist in the first place.
The price of grain is what is going up, which in turn increases the price on meat. You still have to feed these chickens with the more expensive grains, so I don't see how farming your own chickens suddenly became worthwhile with the recent food price jump.
I totally support this petition. With rising transportation costs and GHG emissions, urban societies need to become more self-sufficient and integrate food systems. A single egg-laying hen costs under $5 and will give an egg a day for two years before slaughtered. For those who eat eggs, having one or two chickens in the backyard could greatly help reduce an individual's carbon footprint, improve soil in the backyard, provide free composting services by eating uncooked veggie kitchen scraps, and not support factory-farming. Have you had an organic egg lately?
Totally not comparable.
I support the petition as well, and I'm vegan. It's a great way for city-dwellers to become more self-sufficient, and this is becoming increasingly necessary. Someday, I'd like to have a yard with a pygmy goat to help provide compost for my garden. It's really important to be able to become more self-reliant with peak oil on the horizon, and this petition is exactly what is needed in times like these. It disturbs me how many people just aren't getting it.
I completely support the petition. My neighbor has 3 chickens, and they are clean and quiet.
and Ryan L. chickens shouldn't be eating expensive grains... they eat grass and bugs and kitchen scraps.
that we feed chickens grain is part of the problem with the food industry. it just fattens them quickly for slaughter.
We need to bring our food closer to home. Period.
Ellen and Kettunainen, Hear Hear!
My parents had a chicken in their east Scarborough backyard for about 2 years and one day the city came and told them they had to get rid of it. They complied and they haven't had anymore since but it was there for 2 years and almost every single day produced a beautiful tasty organic egg, the yoke so orange and delicious not at all like store bought eggs. In the winter my dad would take it to the basement and leave it a cage on extremely cold days. It was a great thing to visit and be able to grab those amazingly fresh eggs.
It was a quiet animal and was cared for so that there was no smell even in the summer. Its possible to have 1-2 chickens in your backyard and as long as you take care of its spot to be very clean and useful.
Anyone recall the birdflu that's currently sweeping through Asia in various forms, waves? We do need to think about raising poultry in the city. Tasty eggs or not.
I can't believe it's illegal to keep chickens...some allege that we need to regulate because we all share space...true, but sensible regulations. Like, we can keep dogs, but not too many dogs, and they SHOULD be relatively quiet. Chickens are smaller than dogs, just put a quantity limit that ensure they wont' be more of a nuisance, and they should make better neighbours as dogs because their chirps aren't as loud as neglect induced barking.
I have to wonder though, tee hee, if the neighbours of those currently illegally harbouring chickens, get any hush eggs.
Birdflu affects flocks of birds, chickens raised in our backyards aren't around those flocks.
for that reason alone, we should all raise chickens.
they aren't dirty, and they are cleaner and quieter than Pigeons, which are legal to have in big numbers.
it isn't for everyone, clearly, but why not for those who want them?
I know Toronto did have to deal with bird flu, but realize that allowing residents to keep chickens doesn't introduce more problems. Bird flu has been an issue in large factory farms, not in small backyard flocks. http://www.hsus.org/video_clips/bird_flu_a_virus_of_our_own.html
Chickens are legal in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, and countless other North American cities. Like any other pet or companion animal, they need proper care, housing, and food. In the case of chickens, this is as easy -- or easier -- than raising a cat. They don't need fancy housing and they enjoy eating weeds, common insects, and scraps from the kitchen. They don't produce any special odors, you just have to clean up after them like you do for a cat or dog. I have one cat, 2 dogs, and 3 hens. The hens are by far the easiest to care for.
And chickens are grosser than cats and dogs how? I have more trouble from the local cats mucking around in my yard than I can imagine ever having from a few chickens in a backyard.
Seriously. I bet they shit and make less noise than my neighbours stupid fucking SMELLY dog.
I'm all for chickens in the backyard as long as their's a limit.
I get fresh eggs from my aunt and there is no comparison.
I'm getting a chicken. Fuck yer dogs and cats!
Don't hens need the (crowing at the crack of dawn) rooster to produce eggs -- or is that just a rural myth?
@Jason: Hens produce (edible) eggs on their own; the rooster is necessary for fertilization. Chickens are like people that way. :)
Think of all the money you'll save by not having to buy pesticides to kill bugs if you have a hen or two kicking around. :)
As a rural Ontario 20 something, I think it's great to see some people keeping chickens. My great grandma came to Toronto in 1921 and she always kept a chicken around to keep pests down, eggs, and yummy chicken soups.
Having tasted the difference between a fresh egg and one bought from the store, even the free range variety, I would love to support the idea of chickens in the city. However, all I can picture in my mind are the hilarious Tati antics this would cause. These kinds of privileges don't align with metropolitan life, I think it's sad but true. Sad because the concern people share in their comments I think comes from a lack of trust in being able to sustain lifestyles like this, and that shows that we have really lost the kind of relationship we should have with our food.
P.S. I wonder if the idea mentioned above, about designated restaurants and markets raising hens, is a valid compromise?
I live in the city of Niagara Falls and we are allowed up to 10 hens but no roosters. I currently have 8 hens. Kids love the chickens and weeding the vegetable garden always yields fresh greens for them. Hens are quiet and interesting animals to complement a back garden.
i think it's a great idea! i never thought of keeping a chicken before. can they protect themselves from outdoor cats? and what happens in the winter?
Just like dogs, chickens need some sort of shelter summer and winter. Most predators - coons,possums etc hunt at night - just lock birds in coop at night and open in morning. You can get fancy or keep it simple. A google search can show you what others use and you can build a coop quite easily. In winter keep a lightbulb on in coop so hens keep laying as light stimulates laying hormone.
For those interested in building their own coops, I have developed a set of plans based on a popular European design that area easy to build and use off-the-shelf lumber from your local home improvement center with little use of tools. You can check them out at http://www.CatawbaCoops.com. - Dave
I would really like to keep few chicken in my backyard, althought I am living in Pickering, I want to buy some chicken next summer. It doesn,t matter if it's legal or illegal. I don,t give a shit about it
This is the way of future,so all people support Toronto chicken with he quest. GO for Toronto chicken. You are on the right path.
My family and I are also looking at becoming more selfsuficientish and chickens or possibly ducks do figure into that equation. In my particular location I may end up in just heaps of trouble but on the other hand why am I not able to grow food for my family on the property that I own. I am allowed to grow fruit and vegetables but the line is drawn at protein, why is that? Well cared for animals are an integral part of organic permaculture for their composting ability, the fact that most backyard fowl are great at nibbling away at pests in the garden, they provide hours of entertainment, and as a bonus they will feed our families. Why is something as basic as growing my own food illegal? I know that I live in a small city in the typical suburban neighbourhood not a farm it's not like I want a flock of sheep in the garage. I just want to grow some fruit, and vegies and have a few eggs for breakfast and baking. Why does that make me at best a revolutionary and at worst a criminal. Good luck Toronto you are blazing a trail that others wish to know what they are eating is wholesome and safe.
Bina
I live in Etobicoke and I like to buy baby chickens for eggs.Where is the nearest farm or the market.
Hello,I keep two hens in my back garden.I live in a terrace house and its quite overlooked,the rules are that you have to keep them 100ft away from neighbours,but ive chanced it ,hoping nobody complains.They are really good laying between 1or2 eggs a day each,they do make noise,but only in short bursts, which constantly worries me,but I dont understand why people are so offended by it,theres seagulls making a hell of a noise around here.With the recession they should leave people alone,Luckily I own my place so Ive slightly more rights.
Hello, I would love to have a couple of chicken for the purpose of eggs, where can i get them?
Hello,
I am excited to buy a couple of chickens as well. I have been buying organic eggs for some time and it is expensive. If I find some info. on where to buy them I will let you know Jay.
Good for you Tara! you are brave, with neighbors close by. Never mind seagulls, what about dogs, cats, animals that have been domesticated and pooh all over the place. I love animals but some of the comments about the smell or livestock in the city is inaccurate.
I hope the petition helps to pass the bill so it can become a reality. Considering our current economic dilemma and disconnection from nature, it would be the best thing for Toronto!!!
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