| With the local food movement growing so quickly, | | | | However, a phone call or a visit might be necessary to |
| perhaps you want to keep some chickens in your | | | | make absolutely sure you are allowed to keep |
| back yard at home. Your children might be begging | | | | chickens at your home. |
| for baby chicks to raise. You have enthusiastic | | | | Even though people have been keeping chickens in |
| visions of feeding your family fresh, organic, chemical | | | | cities for hundreds of years, many cities have gone |
| free eggs and meat you proudly produced yourself. | | | | through a campaign to remove farm animals from |
| These are splendid goals. But before you rush out | | | | within their limits. On the other hand, if your city or |
| and buy a coop full of chickens, make sure you look | | | | town has a strong agricultural past, there may be no |
| into local regulations to make sure poultry is allowed in | | | | regulations at all. |
| your neighbourhood. | | | | Regulations may define how far a chicken coop must |
| It might not even occur to you that there could be rules | | | | be from a human dwelling or whether you are allowed |
| governing whether or not you can have those half | | | | to keep hens but not a rooster. While hens are quiet |
| dozen hens pecking about in your yard. But if you live | | | | creatures who only cluck loudly after laying an egg, a |
| in an urban or semi-urban area, there most likely are | | | | rooster is a noisy fellow whose territorial crowing is apt |
| regulations about keeping domestic farm animals, | | | | to get your neigbours up at dawn. Hens will lay eggs |
| including chickens, within their boundaries. | | | | perfectly well without a rooster, though those eggs will |
| Check first to avoid the tragedy of having to give up | | | | not be fertile. |
| birds you and your kids have made members of the | | | | Even if local regulations forbid chickens, don’t give |
| family and learned to love. | | | | up. You might only need to make a convincing case |
| Places to check: | | | | before the deciding body to get the rules changed in |
| - Your local animal control office | | | | your favour. Other groups have done this and you |
| - Your municipal government | | | | could research their arguments online. This also makes |
| - City ordinances, including noiseand nuisance | | | | a great learning project for your children. As they put |
| ordinances | | | | the case together, they learn how their local |
| - Zoning regulations | | | | government works and what the individual can do to |
| - Local health board | | | | make positive change. |
| Most likely you can make this investigation online. | | | | |