By Maymie Tegart
Published: March. 16, 2013
“Did you know the egg comes out of their bum?!” Lilly, the brightly brown-eyed 8 year old asked.
She was proudly giving a full tour of her bear-proof chicken coop built by her father.
In her 100 by 80 foot backyard in downtown Squamish, Lilly (name changed to protect identity) has two hens that supply her family with daily eggs. She gently picked up two fresh eggs — one baby-blue and one white — and returned them to her mother.
Despite Lilly not looking like your average criminal, this simple act of growing her own eggs is illegal.
Lilly’s pets have been living undercover for the past three years.
She is well aware of this, and has already devised a fool proof plan: “If we hear a police car, we’re going to pretend like we don’t know the chickens are there,” she whispered mischievously. “But first I will put tape around their beaks so they are quiet!”
Lilly’s parents are among a handful of Squamish households who have backyard chickens despite current bylaw regulations.
Why? According to Lilly’s mother, “I know what [the chickens] eat; I know that they are happy and healthy, and I think it’s very important for the kids to know where their food comes from.”
It sounds quite simple, yet these criminal chickens have managed to create a nearly two-year long debate between town council members and residents determined to grow their own food in Squamish.
Squamish is a designated “Bear Smart” community and is located in prime cougar and black bear territory. Ranking number one in British Columbia for total cougar calls to the BC Conservation Office in the past three years, and consistently in the top five for black bears, it is no wonder why council is reluctant to consider adding other attractants — such as chickens, eggs, and feed — into the mess.
In 2010, there were fourteen calls within district boundaries specifically related to poultry, and one bear was killed after gaining access to a chicken coop. The community has actively tried to mitigate human and bear conflicts through enforcing bylaws regarding wildlife attractants and supporting education programs such as Bear Aware.
Bear Aware Community Coordinator Meg Toom points out the discouraging reality about human nature: “Unfortunately, often times it takes a bear break-in to happen before people will actually take pro-active measurement to prevent it.”
An attractant is not always rendered illegal. It is up to local conservation officers to ensure residents are managing the attractant effectively such as requiring wildlife proof compost and garbage bins.
The feed, the eggs and the chickens themselves all contribute to attracting wildlife.
“Bees, compost, cats and dogs are also considered attractants, and we allow all of those,” says Susan Chapelle, a district councilor and vocal advocate for backyard hens.
A handful of families have taken pro-active measures to create bear safe environments for their clucking friends. Lilly’s family is an example of this, and her neighbor even more so.
With a garden abundant with blackberries, pears, apples, and over one hundred other edible plant species, it is a jackpot for any bear.
A muddy bog behind the house is a common path for many bears that often sniff around the compost, but have yet to notice the chickens.
Both households have taken the issue seriously and employed many preemptive measures to prevent wildlife: electric fencing, bear resistant feed containers, and underground fencing to keep out rats and other small animals.
The most recently proposed solution to the backyard chicken debate is to create a Community Chicken Co-op. The Co-op will ensure proper management and still aim to achieve the two primary goals of backyard hen keeping: food security and education.
Will the proposed Co-op put the debate to rest? “I think it is a better way to run something. It also allows people who might live in an apartment who couldn’t own chickens to participate,” says Toom.
Squamish Climate Action Network (CAN) president Krystle TenBrink is keen to help with the project, but says the club does not have the time or finances to run it. “It wasn’t what some Squamish CAN and some community members wanted.
What they wanted was for backyard chickens to be legal,” says TenBrink.
The Political Economy of a Chicken Co-op
District representatives do not think council is willing to make it a tax paying issue. “I would like to think that if there was a Co-op, the Co-op members would have a Board that steers the future of the Co-op,” says District planner Sabina Foofat.
Doug Race, a District councilor seems to agree, “Ideally, it would be self-funding and privately run.”
Foofat will send out a survey gauging community engagement for the Co-op within the next few weeks.
And what about the location?
The primary goals for the Co-op are education and food security.
“It will be easily accessed, central, and relatively convenient so that you aren’t going way out of your way. And obviously not in a high wildlife conflict area,” says Foofat.
District councilor Doug Race thinks differently. “Backyard chickens are the absolute worst thing for a neighborhood, my concern is bringing them into the residential location,” he says, arguing that the proposed Co-op would have to be in a vacant lot in an area already zoned for agriculture.
“Do you want to hear about my project? I know a lot about chickens…” With little time for a reply, Lilly continued, “I know all the layers of the egg.
And did you know they lay almost 300 eggs a year?! One time we got a HUMONGOUS one!” Lilly was eager to explain the science project she made for school about her hens.
With firsthand experience, she claims she is now a chicken expert. Lilly’s neighbour, one of the original hen advocates for Squamish, values the importance of education that backyard hens can have.
Across British Columbia, there has been an increasing consumer demand for organic, local and free range eggs according to the British Columbia Egg Marketing Board (BCEMB).
Since 2010, more than 42,000 caged hens have been transferred to free-range farms to meet consumer demand. Steve Moir at Glacier Valley Farm claims he can’t keep up with demand in Squamish. Contracts with local cafés and grocery stores keep his 399 chickens busy.
Why 399 exactly?
One more chicken would require him to be a registered producer with quota for the BCEMB. This would rack up a bill of $80-$90 per hen, making his low profit margin even smaller. “If I accidentally drop a basket of eggs, I’m basically working for free for the day,” says Moir.
As for the backyard chicken debate, “I have zero opposition for it. But, first and foremost are animal health, welfare and protection. They aren’t goldfish – you can’t just flush them down the toilet.”
In his opinion, as long as people understand what they are getting themselves into and can manage it properly, it shouldn’t be a problem. For him, managing his coop effectively meant planting 44 foot tall electric fencing around his hens to keep wildlife away.
“Maybe if electric fencing becomes part of the bylaw or permit system it would force people to jump through the hoops and take the fad away from it.”
Rossland, Terrace, Prince Rupert, Saanich, Victoria, Vancouver and New Westminister are among a few municipalities across British Columbia that have amended bylaws to accommodate backyard hens within the past three years. Squamish is often called “unique” or “different” due to the prominent wildlife in the area.
Of course wildlife is not the only opposing argument. Residents also worry about pollution, odor and noise while the BC SPCA is worried about the potential for animal neglect. There are also concerns about food safety and the spread of avian diseases.
Municipalities have combated many of these issues by making stringent policy guidelines around the construction of the coop, limiting the number of birds per household, not allowing the cockle-doodle-doo-ing roosters, and prohibiting the slaughtering of hens.
Some, such as Rossland, focus on education and provide online resources and host open house events. Rossland’s REAL Food group hosts annual “Chicken Crawls” where residents can tour the local coops to learn about potential problems and effective solutions from fellow hen keepers.
Interior Health’s Public Health sector, which remains neutral on the debate, provides guidelines for urban hen keeping and lists specific protocols that municipalities must consider when amending bylaws.
They also state, “disease transmission, food safety and nuisance issues can be mitigated with proper hygiene and controls related to handling of chickens and eggs and proper maintenance of the surrounding environment.”
Although Squamish may lack financial resources and leadership for a Community Co-op, there are plenty of online resources available to help individual owners manage backyard coops effectively — while hopefully maintaining rapport with nearby neighbors.
Somehow, chickens have managed to create one of the most polarized debates Squamish has seen. One local resident said, “sometimes it’s hard to voice your opinion on the issue because some people are just so opinionated.”
Ultimately, the decision is up to council — which was split 4-3 on the debate in September. Bear Aware and conservation officers provide education and both state that they are neither for nor against backyard chickens.
Toom states, “Should [council decide to allow chickens in residential areas], my responsibility will be to ensure that people are doing it in a way that doesn’t attract wildlife through education and providing resources.”
With a lack of consensus on leadership and a possible location for the Co-op, the future of the proposed solution does not look promising. TenBrink adds, “A pilot project would have been a really good route, because I don’t think people are going to stop on this issue.”
Should people be allowed to have their own hens if they are willing to follow strict rules? Can council trust people to take pro-active measures to prevent wildlife encounters and uphold certain public safety standards?
The District of Squamish’s Official Community Plan states: “Urban agriculture is encouraged as a method to assist in providing daily food items,” yet it looks like Lilly and the rest of the underground hen keepers will have to continue keeping their pets a secret.
Marty says
I am all for letting people have chickens in their backyard – it is wrong not too.
Dave says
Back-Yard Chickens in Urban Areas :
Across this country there is a heated debate as to whether or not all citizens should be allowed to raise chickens in their back yards in order to ensure food security .
This quest is often spawned by various environmental pressure groups as a sacrosanct mandate with scant regard for the existing norms of their respective communities.
Please don’t get me wrong. My early years on this planet were spent on my grandfather’s farm where we kept pigs, cattle, hundreds of chickens and yes roosters!
I fondly remember this experience. We would collect the fertilized eggs from time to time and have the broody hens sit on them till they hatched. We would carefully rear them in controlled brooders till they were able to join the rest of the group….wonderful. And yes the eggs; better than anything you can buy in the supermarkets. We reared male birds (cockerals) for our special meals…chicken was a delicacy in those heady post war 50’s days (no prepacked chicken breasts or thighs in the stores) and we felt RICH.
In rural areas this experience is still mirrored and this is good. Urban and suburban people can visit such areas and purchase fresh produce and fresh eggs. They can go to Farmers Markets in their towns and buy these things. The producers benefit and so do the buyers.
Now there are groups of people who want to play at this lifestyle. They cloak their agenda under a “need for food security”. This will certainly be an issue soon but not quite yet! Chickens can be raised in areas from the equator to the arctic and their keeping can be started as and when needed. Plant agriculture is altogether different and will be soon problematic due to climate change. In this light, keeping chickens is somewhat independent of present food security needs and can be tabled for later when things get really tough.
Such pressure groups strive to create an environment in their communities which will simulate an alleviation of this perceived lack of security..sort of training us for the future.
In short they want us to be ready. On the surface this appears to be a good thing . But sometimes the situation can become rather forced.
Take a young couple thirty or so years ago who bought a piece of land in a semi-urban area and built their first home. They signed an agreement (covenant) that they would not rear any livestock including poultry and that was that.
Anyway, the area was prone to bear, coyote and raccoon incursion and their lot was quite small. Thirty years later a group of people came into town and settled. They looked around and felt they would like fresh farm eggs and what better way than to rear the chickens in their own small back yards.
So what if there was a bylaw in place which has been there for forty or fifty years…they’ll just get it changed! Familiar story?
Well that’s where we are at in my own town. The Council has budget constraints and even if they agreed to a bylaw change they would probably not be able to enforce the necessary controls on the keeping of the back-yard chickens. Neighbours would start to scrap with each other over the noise, smell and undesirable wild critter incursions. Due to the current municipal act they would be obliged to report their good neighbour(s) in writing and give their name. Any rapport they had created over the years would be shot to pieces.
A sad situation to contemplate.
Note: In the case of my own land, I am protected by a covenant set up on the date of purchase. This covenant supercedes any municipal changes to the existing bylaws. If anyone reading this might be affected by movements to establish adjacent chicken coops then be assured that you are protected should you have a similar covenant for your property and wish not to have backyard hens near you.. You are advised to check with your Land Registry and act accordingly. However it maybe that your District will just not allow back-yard hens in your urban areas anyway.
Donny says
Over the last 12 years I’ve had visits from bears,cougars wildcats,racoons ,matrins, squirrels ; oh! and I keep hens.
For three of those years I had no hens. The critters still visited.
These animals roam our neighbourhoods searching for food, if the food source is locked up , they move on; but they still visit , because we placed our housing right in the middle of their territory.
Having backyard chickens is fine , so long as they are made safe from predators.
If having hens is part educational, then Lilly , your mum should explain to you that eggs do NOT come out of a hen’s bum , just as you didn’t come out of your Mum’s.
Dave says
Donny
Re. Bird anatomy (to be truly “Educational”:
There are two separate ducts; one for eggs and the other for waste, but one shared exit. Waste never comes into contact with egg, due to duct design. Yes the egg does come out of the “bum” if this common exit could be so called!
Dave (B.Sc. Zoology)
donaldabgraham@shaw.ca says
Dave,
I was suggesting that the child clearly was think of the human orifice and ITS function when talking about a bum , otherwise the statement had no sensational
element to it.
I wasn’t really looking for a lecture on the obvious . After 60 years of hen raising I’d figured out that the egg fectory and the shitter shop weren’t intermingled.
Donny (B.S.Squamish)
ted prior says
I was one of the councilors that did not support the chicken bylaw last year . It was for a few reasons, wild life attractant, policing a bylaw to make sure people are doing a proper job and finally the fact that lots of people did not want chickens in there neighborhood . I would how ever like to have a trial . This topic is one of my favorites , it seem to represent how our society functions it is a good example of small groups of people can run decisions in a Council I think that that vast majority really don’t give a cluck . Good story You people did a great job on your Magazine . Post a link
Dave says
If there is a “trial”, lets make sure that the District is fully prepared to follow through with the policing/control aspect of all this. During the “trial” I am sure this would be done but later, due to obvious fiscal constraints, things will inevitably fall back. The very best example of this is the pitifal Dog Control bylaw and its lack of application.
The wildlife attractant aspect remains as important and particularly in R1 Zoned urban areas this will be a problem…counter to all the efforts of Bear aware.
You can put your chicken coops in the equivalent of Fort Knox but the bears and coyotes will still come sniffing around . And, one successful break-in due to lack of vigilance will undo years of work by B.A. preventative measures. Any meaningful trial will restrict householders to about five hens. Their efficient egg laying lifespan will be about four years and then they will have to be replaced to ensure continued “food security”. Nowadays it is illegal for ordinary people to simply bonk the birds on the head. They will have to be euthanized (legally) by a vet…..costly. The type of chicken food for the best production includes fish-meal and this is smelly and not cheap. A meaningful trial should involve full permission from neighbours on both sides of the fence, otherwise there will be battles which could get nasty!
LEAVE CHICKEN REARING TO RURAL AREAS IN OUR VALLEY and buy your eggs from them. Such a “can of worms”, I think.
Oh yes, for the “educational experience” of the kiddies, have them watch their pets be put down after four or five years!
Dottie says
I’m curious about something! How is the downtown ‘unfenced’ garden being overlooked as an attractant? With all that produce growing openly, unfenced, in the middle of downtown, why isn’t anyone mentioning the fact that bears, and cougars, might be attracted to that? I’ve been wondering since last year. Anyone know?
And please say you were joking about taping the hens beaks. I think that falls under ‘animal cruelty’.
Good luck in your quest. I think it’s not so much about people not being open to the idea of hens but people not trusting others will comply with rules and regulations put in place if something like this is adopted. I have a visual of a hen on a condo patio!
Craig Davidiuk says
So if you let chicken coops in, then you have set a precedent for ducks, pigeons, Cornish hens and pheasants. Don’t laugh, many cultures raise these birds as food and pets. Some raise them for profit. So you apply for a chicken coop, and fill it with something else, nothing will happen. Its obvious there won’t be any enforcement.
As a person who had two neighbors with illegal coops last year, I’m opposed. One neighbor had ducks and the amount of noise they generate was horrific. I was a supporter of this concept before the ducks came along. I do not wish to wake up at 4am, every day of the week, thank you very much. And the noise they made all the time made it hard to sit on the deck and read a book or visit with friends at any time of the day.
If my dog starts making that kind of noise, animal control is all up in my face, as they should be. But you can’t train ducks and chickens to be quiet or lock them inside when you go out. The coops next door are gone now,thank god. And in turn I didn’t have to rat out my neighbors.
Farm animals belong in the country as far as I’m concerned. We should be supporting local farmers rather than re-inventing the wheel (and some bylaws). By all means grow your own food. I do. But growing chickens is not a reasonable proposition in a residential neighborhood. Well I guess its reasonable to the .001% of the population that want to have a coop. But what about my serene, quiet back yard where I go to relax? What about sleeping in on Saturday? Gone when the ducks and chickens showed up. And did the duck coop owners bother to come over and say “hey if the ducks are an issue give us a call.” Nope. They just went ahead and did it. Much the same way many the coop owners are in this story are doing right now. The reporter didn’t happen to interview the neighbors did she? Just some “unnamed chicken expert”. What about the other three or four households that border the subject home?
I chose to live in town away from farm smells, farm sounds and farm animals. I grew up in a rural environment where it stunk like pig dung, chicken dung and cow dung all the time. I’m just not into it. Sorry “wanna-be” farmers. And sure there are ways for responsible coop owners to mitigate critters, smells and sounds.
But If the way people locals handle their dogs is any indication, I’d peg the chance new coop owners actually being accountable and responsible for their poultry project at 2%.
There are plenty of local dog training course, videos on you tube and books to buy about the subject of responsible dog ownership and training. And yet the pound gives dogs to people whose environment and lifestyle is not suitable for the breed and in turn creates problem dogs. And the same owners do very little to educate themselves if they create a dangerous or problematic dog. (My other neighbor had a puppy from the pound chained to a stick 24/7 that barked non stop in misery for three months but that’s another story. It took six months of videos and complaints to the pound and police to get it rectified. My neighbor hates me now). We have lots of problem dog owners that are allowed to continue being bad dog owners by the DOS. So how do we expect chickens to be any different? The DOS does the best they can with the resources they have for dogs and cats. Does the dog catcher have to go around checking coops too? And what happens when the neighbors cat gets in the coop? Well then we’ll have to start licensing cats and ticketing the felines won’t we?
I hope that council has the vision to put this issue to rest and just call it for what it is, an extremely bad idea. Case closed. This concept is being promoted by a VERY small group of people. No disrespect meant to SQ CAN or other food security enthusiasts. I respect the passion and reasoning for doing it. But I fear the voice of the opposition is getting lost in the media coverage of the issue. Its a great concept on paper. Just not practical or fair to set up and administer for our particular community.
donaldabgraham@shaw.ca says
Dave, You are obviously educated on the subject of chickens , write a good story (mostly) and don’t think this co-op proposal is a workable idea.
I didn’t know thewre was a law against dispatching ones own hens. Maybe you can tell us all where we find a vet that will euthenaise our chickens , since they , the vets, have recently agreed that they will only handle family animals , with farm animals handled ONLY by specialised vets. If a chicken is a pet , the family vet will kill it ; if the hen is just an egg machine then one must find a “farm vet” to do the deed. Or have I got this wrong?
And what was the meaning befind your fatuous remark about children watching their henny penny pet put to rest after a happy life in our back yard. Are you suggesting that we shouldn’t keep cats and dogs either because , inevitably they will someday die ? Or is your concern exclusivly about the relationship that we develop with our chickens ? …..maybe we shouldn’t have a favourite auto ’cause it will have to be sent to the scrapper and the pain of loss will be too much as we watch it crushed to death. Eh!
Dave says
Donald.
Fatuous, maybe, but kids are kids and they want to keep their pets going as long as possible. So do the “food security “people but four years or so is the end of efficiency in that regard and the hens will have to be replaced…hard on the kids really…..especially as the hens could live another six or more years.. Perhaps my sarcasm was to show that they (would be farmers) can’t have it all ways!
Anyway,your sarcasm is is taken in good spirit.
Dottie says
Well written Craig!
bp says
Here, here Craig! Very well said.
Wolfgang Wittenburg says
How long before rabbit hutches make a comeback in backyards? Well why not, it’s all about ‘food security’, isn’t it? A romantic notion in a super-urbanized world and roughly on par with ‘The Queen’s Hamlet’ (Marie Antoinette’s) at Versailles, a forlorn longing for a simpler world, but ultimately an illusion.
Anonymous says
I want a cow, can I have it dentville or a goat so I don’t have to cut the grass.