Another Myth: Busted

From McMurray hatchery, an interesting factoid for the penny pinchers among us:

What Will the Neighbors Think?

Fact: you can’t control what anyone thinks, much less your neighbor. Once folks gain more experience with the advantages and charms of chickens, most prejudice and fear evaporates; especially when you share some of those fresh, heart-healthy, good-for-you eggs from your family flock.

There is one huge advantage to family flocks that is often overlooked during chicken debates. That is their role and value in solid waste management systems. Chickens, as clucking civic workers, are biomass recyclers and can divert tons of organic matter from the trash collection and landfills.

Chickens will eat just about all kitchen “waste”. They love people food, even those “gone-by” leftovers that have seasoned in the refrigerator. Combine their manure with grass clippings, fallen leaves and garden waste, and you create compost. Composting with chicken helpers keeps tons of biomass out of municipal trash collection systems.

All this can save BIG TIME taxpayer dollars, which is especially valuable in these times of stressed municipal budgets.

There is precedence for employing family flocks as part of trash management. It is being done very successfully in some European towns. One example is the town of Deist in Flanders, Belgian. The city buys laying hens to give to residents who want them. The chickens’ job is to divert food waste from the trash stream and not having to be pickup by workers, transported, and then disposed. The savings are significant."

Issue Receives Media Attention

Fixing this issue for our city will require some media attention. Here's a piece from yesterday's Strib.

Misconceptions About Backyard Poultry: Debunking Common Myths

 Chickens are loud and disruptive to nearby neighbors.
False: Most of the time, hens only make soft clucks generally not audible over 12 feet or so. Much of the time, hens are perfectly silent. Oh, they do squawk for a few prideful moments while laying, but that’s about it. Roosters are noisier, but it’s not necessary to have a rooster to have hens that lay eggs.  Some towns have laws specifically prohibiting roosters because of the noise. Compared to a barking dog next door, chickens are a welcome relief as far as noise is concerned.

Chickens and their manure smell bad
False: A clean coop is an odor-free coop. One medium dog produces the same amount of daily waste as 6-10 chickens, but unlike dog poo, chicken manure can be composted and used as fertilizer for yards and gardens. But a neighbor’s back yard full of poo from their dog? That’s a whole different (but perfectly legal!) sort of olfactory experience, especially on a hot day.

Having chickens in your yard will attract pests like racoons and rats.
Not exactly false, but not completely true either: Chicken feed is most likely to attract these kinds of pests (and this can be remedied by using containers with tight fitting lids). Truth is, chickens do not attract these pests any more than wild turkeys, wild geese, wild ducks, hawks and eagles, and other wild birds. Chickens enclosed in a secure coop and run actually dissuade predators who very quickly realize they cannot get to their desired meal.

Chickens tear up lawns.
False: The easiest and most effective way to debunk this myth is to visit the back yard of a city resident who has a chicken coop. Do they have a lawn of grass around their run? Of course they do. 'Nuff said.

What about the spreading of diseases or disease transmission to humans?
Small flocks have very low risk of disease transmission to humans. Do just a little homework and you will learn that it is large-scale commercial farm conditions that breed disease. Experts agree backyard chickens present no more of a health risk than other animals that may be kept as pets. In fact, the risk of disease being passed from birds to humans is less than the risk of infection from cats or dogs.  The 2006 Grain Report states: “When it comes to bird flu, diverse small-scale poultry is the solution, not the problem. 

OMG! Hystoplasmosis!
Hystoplasmosis, though it can be a serious disease, is not caused by backyard chickens.  It is a soil-borne pathogen that tends to multiply in damp, shady areas that have been left undisturbed over time.  The fungus thrives in high-nitrogen soil, like that which can develop in bat caves, old attics or chimneys where pigeons have roosted, abandoned chicken houses, or wooded areas where wild birds (like starlings) have been roosting over a period of several years.  The fungus does not grow in a backyard chicken coop where the chickens are being tended by their owner.   Worried about getting hystoplasmosis? Stay out of bat caves and chimneys.

A chicken coop next door will adversely affect my property values.
Simply put, probably not. Property values in Maple Grove and Edina (and Roseville!) are as high as they have ever been, and these cities have very liberal policies about backyard chickens.  

Why Keep Backyard Chickens?

Here are just a few reasons that more and more people in more and more communities are getting a few chickens:

Chickens are a great way to live a little more sustainably.
They provide a source of protein that comes right from your backyard.  They have low “food miles” - meaning they don’t travel far to get to your plate and therefore don’t require the use of fossil fuel. It allows you to opt out of the factory-farmed egg production system and eat super-local food. 

Chicken-keeping is good for the environment.
Most flock owners compost chicken manure – that nitrogen-rich compost is GREAT for gardens! Chickens will also happily eat kitchen scraps, as well as any trimmings and spent plants from your vegetable patch. Even lawn clippings, autumn leaves and other yard waste can be handed over to the chickens – what they don’t eat will be turned over and broken down until lovely compost remains. Much better than sending everything to the landfill!  

With backyard chickens, you know exactly where your food came from. (And it isn't Chile or Mexico or even Texas).
Because you raised your chickens, you know what they ate and how they were treated. You can eat eggs and meat without supporting inhumane, disease-spreading factory farming. (not familiar with how store-bought eggs and chicken come to your table? Do a quick Google search and if you can find a link to what life is like for a chicken on a factory farm. WARNING: If you find one, it might be while before you feel like buying chicken or eggs at the store for a long time). You get the freshest, healthiest eggs possible. Small-flock eggs have been proven to have higher levels of key nutrients like beta carotene, omega-3 fatty acids and lower levels of cholesterol. They are simply better for you than store-bought eggs.

Chickens are fun - and funny! pets!  
Believe it or not, chickens can be socialized to be downright cuddly. Kids especially seem to be able to bond with backyard hens easily. Chickens teach kids responsibility - which is why many schools (including our own New Brighton schools) use them in curriculum. They are very easy to care for and, if you spend enough time socializing them, can be as affectionate as a dog or cat. Chickens are also incredibly entertaining for adults - don't believe me? Throw a strand of spaghetti into a coop and watch! They are great pets!

First, a little history ...

Chicken keeping in New Brighton is on the chopping block (so to speak).

The keeping of chickens has always been allowed, without regulation, in our city. Now, it seems, the city leadership wants to change that. I'll try to make a very long story as short as possible.

Lots of folks have had backyard coops in New Brighton for many years - some for many, many years! But a couple of years ago, an ugly situation arose with a couple of neighbors in town: one household had chickens and the other did not, and the household that did not have chickens did not want their neighbors having them, either. And so they called the police to complain over and over (and over and over and over) again for complaints that started with their neighbor's chickens, but led to calling the police with complaints that their neighbors were looking at them strangely. This went on (and on and on and on) for a couple of years until the city finally got sick of it and decided to put together an Urban Farming Task Force, charged with the responsibility of studying the issue of keeping chickens (and also bees) in New Brighton. The task force, which included several who keep chickens in our city, met for well over a year. They came up with some common sense sorts of guidelines for consideration by the city council, which the council must have determined to be too lenient. So the city came up with some regulations of their own which were considerably more restrictive, but not completely unreasonable or unworkable and they scheduled a vote on them for May 12, following a public forum.

A week or two before the scheduled forum and vote, an anonymous flyer was circulated in the city by someone  wishing to do away with chicken keeping in New Brighton altogether. Most of the information in the flyer was at best misleading, and at worst, simply lies. This flyer was widely distributed to those in a certain demographic (older and wealthier) of our community. It amounted to nothing more than fear mongering. Those residents who have quietly and responsibly kept chickens in our city chose not to stoop to the low level of an anonymous rebuttal flyer. At the forum, over 40 residents spoke to the issue of chicken keeping in New Brighton, about half for it and about half against it. It is doubtful that many of those who spoke against live anywhere near a backyard coop and so did not speak about their own experience with backyard chickens, but rather, they simply recited the litany of false information presented on the anonymous flyer, which made them fearful.

Following the forum, the council was to vote on the heightened restrictions it had come up with, but at that moment the mayor abruptly moved to ban chickens in the city altogether, and the motion passed by a 3-2 vote. The vote won't become city law until language is drafted and voted upon, so those of us who were shocked and heartbroken and angry at the bait and switch which happened at the meeting still have a little time to try and prevent this from becoming official at the council's next meeting on May 26.

What can concerned citizens do? Contact our city council members!  Better yet, call them.