The “Chicken Ordinance” is soon to be back on the City Councils’ plate. When the ordinance amendment to allow up to five hens was first served to the body way back in February, the Mayor treated the amendment with the repulsion a five-year-old would reserve for a Brussels sprout – dismissing it as something strange and unpalatable before giving it a taste, or in this case, a hearing.

As the Chicken Ordinance made its way through the Public Safety and Plan Commissions, there seemed to be more of that five-year-old’s attitude in some of the members, as they were unwilling to be swayed by the facts and data that countered their misperceptions. That was a shame, because there is so much good that can and does come from municipalities allowing chickens as backyard pets and food providers.

In summary, the proposed ordinance:

• Allows chicken keeping as a permitted use in single-family and two-family zoning districts.
• Allows up to five domestic fowl allowed per household in a single-family or two-family district.
• Prohibits roosters.
• Prohibits slaughtering outdoors on the residential premises.
• Requires that poultry shall be kept within a secure and clean hen house or enclosure at all times and not allowed to run free.
• Requires that the hen houses and enclosures shall be located no closer than 20′ from nearest neighbor’s residence.
• A $10 permit is required (per household), to be renewed annually.

The misperceptions begin with the idea that backyard chicken-keeping equals farming. Those who grew up on a farm or experienced farm life can attest that roosters can be noisy, protective, and often aggressive birds. Fortunately, roosters aren’t needed to produce eggs, so roosters aren’t allowed under this ordinance. Hens make soft noises and are fine pets.

Chickens in great numbers, such as in commercial operations, can create great quantities of poop. Poop in large quantities can smell if not disposed of quickly and properly. But the Chicken Ordinance only allows up to five hens. This small quantity of poop is easily managed – the birds do most of their pooping at night and the bedding and poop can be easily composted into a valuable soil amendment. Do you think Martha Stewart would keep chickens if they were stinky? No way!

Based on the experience of other communities, the amount of energy expended to enforce the Chicken Ordinance will be slight. Madison, with a population twenty-five times greater than Monona’s, has allowed chickens for four years. According to the Zoning Administrator for Madison, they have fewer than ten complaints per year and “the enforcement burden of managing this ordinance is fairly minimal.”

And Douglas Voegeli, Supervisor of Environmental Health Services for Madison and Dane County wrote, “Since the ordinance was approved, we have not had a complaint of unsanitary conditions due to chickens. I also supervise animal services and believe that we have not had any complaints of chickens at large. The chicken keeping community does a good job of caring for and restraining their chickens.”

According to City of Monona Police Department incident reports for 2008, there were 69 calls for dogs disturbing neighbors, 12 for bites, and 102 for strays. If chickens are not allowed because they are considered to be a big enforcement issue, then perhaps we need to revisit allowing canines.

Did you know that eggs of pastured chickens contain 34% less cholesterol, 10% less fat, 40% more vitamin A, twice as much omega-6 fatty acid, and four times as much omega-3 fatty acid as the USDA standard?

Did you know that in Flanders, Belgium, many local authorities give out free chickens as household kitchen waste processing units? And that London’s waste professionals considered subsidizing chickens as a waste reduction strategy? As consumers of food scraps, chickens keep organic wastes out of our landfills, not only reducing the landfill space we need, but reducing the resulting methane from food waste decomposition. Methane is more than twenty times more effective at trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, so reducing methane is a good thing!

Food security means we have reliable access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet our dietary needs. In the future, when the signs of peak oil are clearer to both eyes and pocketbook, having our food sources as close as possible will be crucial to the economic vitality of our community. We should be learning how to be more self-sufficient now, adding chicken-keeping skills to our methods.

Related to food security is environmental sustainability – the more local our food is, the less we rely on fossil-fuel-dependent agriculture and transportation – and economic sustainability — the more forward-thinking we are as a community, the more attractive we are to the younger homebuyers and entrepreneurs who are vital to our city’s future.

There are so many positives: chickens eat bugs and weeds, helping reduce garden pests in a safe and positive way; backyard chickens are treated humanely, unlike factory-farmed chickens, which live under unbelievably horrible conditions; and getting more involved in our food production gives us a closer connection to our food and nature.

According to Oregon State University Extension Poultry Specialist James C. Hermes, Ph. D., “Small numbers of hens can be a great addition to any urban family backyard. They provide enjoyment to the whole family; they produce eggs for the family and fertilizer for the garden. The problems are minimized by proper management and should cause no more problems than those raised by the presence of dogs or cats.”

Shouldn’t Monona citizens be allowed to do anything on our own property as long as it doesn’t harm others? I would suggest that dogs barking in the wee hours, neighbors putting chemicals on their lawns, and ugly paint colors on the house across the street are all much more harmful to us and our peace of mind than having chickens next door could ever be.

Those who fear the passage of the Chicken Ordinance should know that allowing backyard chickens won’t do much to alter the landscape of Monona. There are chickens living in Monona right now and no one has complained. You didn’t even know they were there! Obviously, chicken coops can be charming and unobtrusive. And chicken-keepers can be charming, too, perhaps even sharing eggs with you.

Eighteen people have made appearances or registered in favor of the Chicken Ordinance at various city council and commission meetings. Only one person made an appearance against it. The citizens of Monona should know this.

I encourage the city council members and the mayor to savor the Chicken Ordinance. It is not a Brussels sprout, and you are not five-year-olds, so you have the ability to consider it with rational thought and an educated palate. Might it be a soufflé, rich and full of health and protein, a rewarding and savory feast offering much more goodness than you could have imagined? You’ll never know unless you quit being afraid and bite into it.