If the Boulder City Council requires a maximum of six chickens per household within city limits, what is to become of our other 14 chickens?
Following the Feb. 21 City Council meeting, this is one question that comes to mind.
There are many others. For instance, as far as standards for housing chickens, where in the yard chicken houses can be located and kept clean, what does that mean? Shoveled out, washed out once a month? If the chicken houses and yards don’t meet cleanliness standards, the chickens will be considered a nuisance? If that’s the case, what will be done with them?
City Council member Bear Taylor said at the meeting, “At this time Boulder has no restrictions for chickens in town. If a guy wanted to open up a chicken farm in town, we couldn’t stop him.” Is that true? Define “chicken farm.” Is this 100 chickens? 1,000 chickens? 10,000 chickens? Would it be for egg production, a slaughterhouse or both? Did someone once approach the city council about opening a chicken farm? And, if so, why exactly is this ‘a cause for concern’? Was he proposing to build the facility on acreage at the town’s outer limits or in the town’s center? Wouldn’t he have had to get building permits and apply for a business license? Wouldn’t there have been public hearings to discuss his proposal? Why didn’t he follow through with his proposal?
And, as for clean chicken houses, will someone be hired to inspect chicken houses monthly or yearly or only when neighbors complain about smells? What will consequences be for unclean chicken houses?
During the Feb. 21 meeting Bear Taylor said “We’re not trying to force anybody to live a certain way. We (just) want them to be responsible for themselves.” However, it appears that you – The City of Boulder – want us to move our chicken houses into our backyard, which is our garden and orchard area. And it appears you want us to cull 14 of our chickens. In addition, you want us to abide by your nonspecific standards of cleanliness? And you want us to kill our rooster? It appears that you are intruding into our private space and dictating what use we can make of that space.
I suggest that you discard your proposal and invite chicken owners to help you rewrite a proposed ordinance that could include some limitations:
1. Anyone who chooses to raise chickens will assume responsibility for the health and welfare of those birds.
2. Anyone complaining about those chickens will be directed to speak directly with the chicken owner and resolve disputes to the satisfaction of both parties.
3. Chicken owners will research how to raise chicken sources on their own. They will learn how to build structures and enclosures, how to maintain heathy flocks in the space available, what equipment to purchase, where to buy birds, how many birds they can have, what breeds suit their needs best. Many valuable internet sources are available and many chicken owners are available to provide information.
4. Nurseries often ship 25 chicks at a time, so we recommend that if your space is adequate, you may raise up to 25 birds at a time.
5. If you have a flock of 25 chickens or less and you sell some of your eggs, you will be required to pay $25.00 a year for a city license to operate your hobby business.
6. To raise more than 25 chickens, you will have to apply for a variance from the city and furnish the city with plans for your enterprise. Submit your property for inspection by the variance board, present at hearings regarding your business plans, and if successful, pay the standard business license fee.
Raising chickens can be a way of connecting with our distant past, when humans first domesticated animals. It can be a unique experience for children. I remember when our youngest son would read books such as “How To Raise Rabbits” and then want to raise rabbits, then parakeets, chickens, ducks, geese… he even tried to domesticate wild mice. However, there was no literature to back him up on the latter. It didn’t work, but he did succeed with a few setbacks, and in so doing learned lots of important lessons, like how valuable research can be. Speaking of which, he did research the ordinance questions, like that Helena and Boulder are two of few Montana cities and towns that don’t set limits on the number of fowl one can raise within city limits.
I say let’s continue to allow turkeys, peacocks, chickens, quail, ducks, geese and other small animals to be raised within our city limits. We don’t have to conform to the carefully controlled trend our council is proposing. Let’s maintain the country atmosphere in our fair little city.
