Tomorrow, Tuesday, October 5, 2010, the Sacramento City Council's Law and Legislation Committee panel debates the legality of egg-laying chickens in the city. The topic will be to discuss whether or not to draft an ordinance to allow egg-laying chickens in the city of Sacramento. The meeting will be held at 3:00 p.m. on the first floor council chambers of New City Hall, at 915 I St, Sacramento.
Take a Workshop in Raising Chickens in Your Own Backyard. Saturday, Oct 23, 2010. Cost: $20, $15 Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op owners,10:00 AM until 12:00 PM. You can take a workshop on October 23, 2010 on raising chickens in your yard. Backyard chickens are all the rage, but are you ready to have your own flock in your backyard?
Learn how to take care of chickens in an urban environment. Urban gardener Antonio will discuss housing, nutrition, predators, diseases, and more. Instructors: Antonio Garza, Soil Born Farms, Sacramento. Register for classes at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op, 1900 Alhambra Blvd. Sacramento or call the Customer Service Desk at (916) 455-2667 weekdays, 9 am - 5 pm and pay by credit card. You also may register online. The location is the Soil Born Farms, American River Ranch, at 2140 Chase Drive in Rancho Cordova.
Which Side Do You Take?
Which side do you take, to remain neutral here, on one hand, it's great to have organic eggs that you can manage yourself by feeding your chickens the food you want your chickens to eat so they will produce healthy eggs to feed your family. And you can compost the chicken's droppings to use as fertilizer (organic) for your plants and fruit trees in your backyard.
On the other hand consider your neighbors. Ask them how they feel about chickens next door. Some people are bothered by chicken clucking or the smell wafting into their yard causing asthma attacks in those who are allergic to scents or to chickens or eggs. If your neighbors don't mind, still "walk a mile in their shoes," so to speak. And if you want to share eggs with your neighbors, ask them how they feel about it. You might trade your chicken's eggs for some of the oranges or lemons from your neighbor's trees.
What you need to keep in mind is that living in the city of Sacramento is not living in the country, where you might have at least an acre of land between you and your next door neighbor. And you need to think about how your neighbor's dog(s) might constantly bark through the fence making noise for you and your neighbor. Dogs, depending on the breed, might want to get at those eggs or chickens and tunnel under the fence or destroy your chickens. Since in the city, most neighbors are separated by a thin wood fence that dogs can tunnel under to get at the chickens or eggs or both, that's another issue to talk about with your neighbors on both sides. It's different out in the country where there are larger spaces between you and someone next door.
Here are some pro and con reasons people give for wanting chickens in their backyard. Currently Sacramento city doesn't allow any hens or roosters within city limits. (Chickens in the county, but not in the city are legal). See the December 12, 2009 Sacramento Bee article, "Sacramento to Rethink Backyard Chicken Ban." Persons against chickens in the backyard are afraid of turning their neighborhoods into "third world countries." The latest news is that the ban will be reconsidered--but not until next year.
The Sacramento City Council promises to reconsider the ban next year in response to the growing popularity of locally sourced food and backyard farming. And the Sacramento backyard owners of the estimated hundreds of illicit chickens in the city are hoping for support. Will the ban be changed? Also check out Backyard Chicken Magazine.
The pro-chicken people point out how chickens eat insects. So you have less bugs in your garden and won't need to use toxic pesticides. And you're supposed to compost the chicken droppings with straw, vegetable waste, and leaves to enrich your garden soil for growing vegetables. Then again, would chickens in the backyard pose a risk of e-coli, Salmonella, and other bacterial infections to humans?
After all, raw eggs are supposed to have salmonella if not cooked to a solid state. Can you weigh the pros and the cons and come up with an answer that neighbors will accept? Or will there be conflict between people that want chickens and the fertilizer, eggs, and food they provide? There's the sharing with neighbors aspect when it comes down to the egg bounty.
Then there are the gleaners that could visit your yard to ask whether you can share your produce with neighbors and others that have less. Some say, great if it's produce as in pomegranates or oranges. But eggs and chickens? Think about it. If you just bought a home, would you want to live next to the year-round smell of a small scale chicken farm wafting in your windows?
Which would you rather have living next to you, neighbors that smoke or make outdoor cooking smoke that drifts into your house, raise chickens, or grow vegetables in the yard? Would backyard chicken breeders lead to sharing or conflict? Is it about the price of eggs? The free-range, hormone-free, anti-biotic-free chickens? Or the consequences and run-off? A lot of people want chickens in their yard. And a lot of people don't want the stench.
Ask yourself, would your retiree neighbors enjoy the roosters crowing early in the morning every day without a break--especially if they're older people that managed to get to sleep by 4:00 in the morning due to acid reflux disease only to be woke up at dawn by the loud noise of backyard poultry ?
Psychologically, it's the extroverts wanting chickens as a way of sharing eggs and chicken feasts with neighbors, whereas the introverts want the peace and quiet of a residential area without barnyard sounds and smells. It's enough with the barking dogs. Add to that noise, farm poultry coming at you from all sides night and day, let alone the danger of Avian flu.
Check out the Backyard Chicken Forum to get a handle on what people are discussing, pro and con about raising chickens in their backyard. Also a nonprofit association that works on food issues has teamed up with several organizations to work on changing the law so that people can raise chickens in their backyard.
Some of the reasons people want to raise chickens in their backyard is to use the eggs and to raise chickens that are free-range without anti-biotics and hormones. But the chickens must be healthy and kept in good health. If anyone raises chickens, they need to learn how to keep the birds in good health.
Not too many veterinarians in the area are trained to take care of the health of chickens. According to the Chicken Forum, here are some items that are listed on its website pertaining to the law in terms of specific terminology...of what they hope might be achieved if a new backyard chicken law does comes to fruition in the future. The site notes the following:
-No person shall keep, harbor or maintain more than six (6) chickens.
-It shall be unlawful for any person to pen, enclose, or otherwise confine, any chicken within twenty-five (25) feet of an inhabited residence without the written consent of the occupant of such residence.
-It is unlawful for any person to maintain a rooster past age of apparent maturity.
The backyard chicken forum is interested in what people think about these constraints. Numerous people would enjoy making chickens in Sacramento 100% legal (no constraints), most think it will not happen. But you never know how the voting will go.
There's a problem with roosters, or rather wording a list of rules or laws pertaining to roosters. According to the backyard chicken forum site, numerous laws appear to list a specific age (4-8 months, depending upon the area), but that seems complicated. The issue is that some varieties of poultry don't show their roosters as early as others. The forum asks, "What wording would you suggest to work on that?"
People that don't want chickens in Sacramento's backyards (but don't mind the birds in rural, county areas where neighbors are far apart and yards are big) give the following reasons why they don't want chickens in people's backyards:
1. Roosters are noisy.
2. Danger of bird flu in chickens is a possibility. Any poultry in a backyard potentially can come down with Avian flu that has a high fatality rate and can be passed to humans handling the birds.
3. Many people don't keep a clean chicken coop. The chicken feces accumulate like uncleaned litter boxes in a yard. Flies are attracted to chickens and eggs as well as rats and mice, skunks, and opposums.
4. The clucking of chickens is annoying to neighbors.
5. The stench of a backyard chicken coop or mini-farm is unbearable when the breeze blows the odor to the neighbors down the block. The smell is overpowering, even if those that keep chicken coops in backyards get used to the smell, others are highly allergic.
6. Neighbors don't want to hear the sounds of butchering chickens or other poultry in backyards. The chicken's screams are gut-wrenching.
On the other hand, those that don't find chickens in the yard a public nuisance, tend to share the eggs with their neighbors. Community gardens are great when they help neighbors share produce such as vegetables and fruit. Chickens belong on farms where they can run free and scratch. But there is that danger of Avian flu from backyard chickens. What do you think? Should people in the city or just outside have backyard chickens? Or do chickens in backyards spread disease because they're not readily inspected?
Immigrants from various countries frequently keep poultry in their backyards in places even where it's against the law. Neighbors visiting people that keep chickens complain of the smell and the noise day and night. With barking dogs, at least, it's usually just one dog that you can complain about how the dog is being treated.
With chickens, the noise is night and day, and no one takes the chickens for a walk on a leash. It's a tough question, back to the farm and away from antibiotics and hormones in chickens and eggs? Or keep residential zones free of animals other than pets? People have their opinions on both sides of the issue. The future will hold which laws will be passed.
Would you put chickens in your backyard? People most against this issue are those working or studying at home all day that need quietness to concentrate or sleep and serenity for balance and retirees that can't afford to live in a gated, senior community. So, should the laws be changed? Or should chickens be kept in rural areas?
Resources
Comments
Obviously there is a lot to be considered in coming to a decision on this issue.
Those who do vote for and raise chickens should make every attempt to learn as much about poultry health as possible, and the links provided here are helpful.
There is a government website of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the USDA which also provides excellent information:
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/birdbiosecurity/
It's also worth a click on the link as there is a fun way to vote on the APHIS Name the Bird contest. Three names are up for vote to choose how the APHIS rooster mascot will go forth in the campaign to raise awareness of bird health.
To raise an awar
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