Ever since it came up at Yorkton Council about 20 months ago I have had an interest in the idea of keeping chickens within city limits.
It was an interesting situation in Yorkton.
Council listened to the request for a ratepayer, then handed it to the City's Protective Services Committee apparently fearing a hen escaping a pen and going 'Cujo-chicken' on the citizens.
Protective Services recommended not allowing hens in backyards.
The collective decision of Council and its Committee has always escaped me.
Keeping laying hens is something cities all over North America, from New York on down, are allowing, although in a typical behind the curve tendency, none in Saskatchewan are on the list.
A few chickens, and yes, municipal jurisdictions set limits on numbers, are certainly no more impactful than someone with a couple of large breed dogs in terms of waste.
In the case of dogs that waste is deposited wherever the mood arises, while hens are generally housed.
Dogs are far noisier as well than a few clucking hens.
And while there might be a vision of free-ranging hens being generally annoying, backyard husbandry has gone along way beyond that.
Cue the magazine 'Chickens'.
I was perusing a local newsstand for the latest fishing magazines and came across 'Chickens'. It was actually one of two publications on the 'stand devoted to keeping small backyard hen flocks.
I grabbed 'Chickens' because it has a story on historic breeds, another area of general interest for me.
The magazines speak to the growing interest and popularity of raising a few chickens in a backyard setting.
There are several reasons for the growing interest.
To start many people want at least some influence on their food supply. Household eggs collected fresh daily are one way to do that, just as are windowsill herb gardens, and being part of community gardens.
There is also something good that happens when people are around animals. You can see that in the reaction of a rancher just sitting watching his herd, or seeing the smiles of residents of a senior home when someone visits with a friendly dog.
Working with a few chickens, feeding them, collecting eggs, would be a great respite from the burdens of jobs and the pace of an electronic world.
In Yorkton Council failed to be trend leaders in being the first city jurisdiction in Saskatchewan allowing backyard hens, but the trend is obviously growing, and that is a good thing.
People, whether rural, or urban, should be interested in having a greater control of their food, whether that is looking to buy direct from areas farmers they trust, or by growing their own.
Having hens for eggs is a reasonable, tried and true, and low impact way, of doing that too.
With a growing volume of information on backyard husbandry hopefully more urban jurisdictions will allow their residents the freedom to be part of the trend.
