Frequently Asked Questions And Myths About Backyard Hen Raising Q: Would someone want to live next door to someone who keeps hens? A: With the rise in concern regarding sustainable green living, more families are seeking out ways to contribute to the efforts of sustainable green living. In a potential food emergency, living next door to a neighbor who has a constant supply of eggs is a good thing. Exhibits A, B, C, and D show that people who take on this commitment genuinely care about their health and the environment as a whole as well as self-reliance. Many are affluent and/or educated people, taking as much pride in their coops and chickens as they do their homes. In reality, there is no good practical reason why raising poultry should have moved outside of an urban and suburban environment. In fact, federal and state governments once encouraged hen-raising as a form of thrift. After World War II, hen-raising was briefly considered a throwback to hicksville by people who wanted to rid their tract-housing neighborhoods of anything that didn t resemble sophisticated, postwar living. Ask yourself whether this attitude is, or ever was, practical in an era of perpetual economic uncertainty. Is it wise to put your ability to feed yourself in the hands of special interests and companies who are unnaturally modifying and exporting all food sources to locations hundreds of miles outside of your neighborhood, or even overseas? Or would you rather have the option of producing your own food right in your own backyard in ways you know are healthy for you and your family? Q: Will someone having backyard hens lower my property values? A: There is no evidence to suggest implementing a chicken ordinance will lower property values. Some of the most expensive cities, towns, and neighborhoods allow backyard hens. Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas, Denver, Highlands Ranch in Colorado, Seattle Portland, OR, Madison, WI, Evanston, Lombard, Oak Park, Naperville, Downers Grove, Long Grove, Wilmette (governed by their nuisance ordinance), Batavia, and Cary (See Exhibits A, B, C, D, E). Q: Aren t chicken coops eyesores? A: People in this modern era of suburban living who want backyard hens typically have no interest in reducing the visual quality of their own dwelling. The culture that has developed around modern backyard hen keeping mirrors the culture of both animal rights and of the quality of home improvement seen on HGTV and other shows. Backyard hen coops today can often resemble a child s playhouse more than a chicken coop. Here are a few examples of very popular and quite attractive chicken coop models installed in suburban neighborhoods all over the nation. 1
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Q: Am I going to have to wake up to a rooster crowing? A: According to the proposed recommendations (see the last page), roosters will not be allowed. Myth: Chickens are loud. Truth: Contrary to popular belief, a backyard hen is not a loud animal. In fact, hens make less noise than a barking dog or a typical song bird. Because hens are social animals, they will talk amongst themselves at a volume of 20-40 decibels, less than the same volume of human conversational speech at 60 decibels. Accounting for distance between hearer and hen, the level is even less. At most, a chicken will briefly make 70 decibels of noise once or twice in a day. Air conditioners are in the 50-75 decibel range. So some air conditioning units are noisier, and for longer, than the loudest chickens. Ironically, noise from hens will pale in comparison to the wild birds in your yard. For example, the common background noise of a typical suburban yard is 50 decibels. Add in a Carolina Wren chirping and you ll have 79 decibels. So, for hens to be a nuisance, they d have to be louder than a typical small wild bird in your oak tree. Yet we don t have ordinance restrictions on wild bird song, or against people who put out bird seed in their yards to attract them. Hens never crow. However, a hen will announce the arrival of a freshly laid egg, which occurs once every 24 to 36 hours during daylight hours. Because roosters are known to be loud, the current proposed guidelines would prohibit roosters from being kept within the village of Fox Lake except in agricultural zones. To put an even finer point on it, below is a reference of decibel levels typical to home environments. If the goal of suburban living is uninterrupted, blissful silence, we should consider banning things like human conversation, sewing machines, vacuum cleaners, hair dryers, alarm clocks, TVs and coffee grinders before considering banning backyard hens. 50 refrigerator 50-60 electric toothbrush 50-75 washing machine 50-75 air conditioner 50-80 electric shaver 55 coffee percolator 55-70 dishwasher 60 human conversation 60 sewing machine 60-85 vacuum cleaner 60-95 hair dryer 65-80 alarm clock 70 TV audio 70-80 coffee grinder 70-95 garbage disposal 75-85 flush toilet 80 pop-up toaster 80 doorbell 80 ringing telephone 80 whistling kettle 80-90 food mixer or processor 80-90 blender 80-95 garbage disposal 110 baby crying 110 squeaky toy held close to the ear 4
Myth: A chicken coop is going to attract more predators. Truth: Predators are already present in the area. Predators include raccoons, foxes, coyotes, dogs, cats, and raptors such as hawks. A properly built and maintained chicken coop and run will take into account the health and safety of backyard hens and the public. Predator-resistant coops are constructed using hardware cloth, which is buried into the soil to keep predators and rodents from digging in. The run can also be topped with hardware cloth. Chickens roost and sleep at night, drawing little attention to themselves. Food can be kept in rodent proof containers. According to Stan Gehrt, the lead investigator for the largest coyote study, coyotes are more likely to seek out a meal at a bird feeder than a hen in a properly built coop (November 8, 2012, The Hidden World of Wolves and Coyotes). We couldn't find an area in Chicago where there weren't coyotes, Gehrt said. They've learned to exploit all parts of their landscape. According to Ms. Austin of Lake County Forest Preserve, a chicken coop is not going to increase the population of coyotes. Coyotes are territorial animals and do not typically cross over into another pack s territory. Coyotes look for the easiest meal and 42% of their diet is made up of rodents. For rodents, carved pumpkins, corn stalks, and bird feeders are all a draw. Therefore, we should ban all Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations as well as backyard birdfeeders and birdbaths before we ban hens. Myth: Chickens and coops are smelly Truth: As with domestic dogs and cats, a poorly maintained habitat has the potential to become odorous. Requiring a permit fee will ensure those people applying to have hens are serious about the commitment they are undertaking. In general, a hen is not inherently unsanitary or smelly. Often when someone refers to how poorly chickens smell they are referencing the odor from an industrial farm where a buildup of ammonia occurs. A properly built coop with ventilation and adequate space, in addition to routine cleaning, would eliminate the potential of foul odor. Complaints about hen smells would be handled the same way complaints about cat and dog smells would be handled -- via the nuisance ordinances already on the books. As for composting of chicken droppings (something you cannot do with cat and dog droppings, by the way), according to Dr. Hermes, Oregon State University Extension Poultry Specialist, "Once added to the compost or tilled into the soil, the odor-causing compounds are no longer able to cause objectionable odors." The type of person seeking to raise backyard chickens is generally health-conscious, seeking out a healthy local food source. For this reason, the same people want healthy, happy chickens, which are generally treated as beloved pets. If having 4 hens is so smelly, Hans Humes, President and CEO of Greylock Capital Management, would not have chickens on his balcony in New York City. 5
Myth: You can t eat the egg or the chicken Truth: Fresh eggs from a backyard are edible and far more nutritional than the conventional egg bought at the store. See the nutritional values below: 4-6 times more vitamin D 1/3 less cholesterol 1/4 less saturated fat 2/3 more vitamin A 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids 3 times more vitamin E 7 times more beta carotene Each family taking on the commitment of raising backyard hens will need to decide how they will address the aging hen or the hen unable to lay eggs. Some will continue to keep the hens as pets until their natural deaths, at which point they would be disposed of in the same manner people dispose of departed cats and dogs. However, others may choose to take the hen to an appropriate service location where nonlaying hens can be converted into a nutritious chicken dinner. For example, Farmer Sam s (http:// farmersam.com) offers chicken slaughtering on a 10 acre hobby farm in nearby unincorporated Lake Villa, IL. Myth: Having hens is going to have a negative impact on sanitation. Truth: A properly maintained coop will not have an odor. The composted manure is a beneficial fertilizer for the garden. Additionally, chickens can be fed kitchen scraps, even scraps that cannot be directly composted, therefore, decreasing municipal solid waste. In comparison to the average dog, producing ¾ pound of manure a day, the average hen produces 1-3.5 ounces of manure per day. While dog waste cannot be composted due to the potential of infecting humans with trichinosis, whipworms, hookworms, roundworms, giardia and coccidia, chicken waste can be composted. In fact, chicken manure has valuable nutrients used to replenish depleted soil. There will be less need for hen owners to drive to the store to purchase a bag of manure. Chickens also reduce the need for pesticides because they eat bugs and weeds, providing a natural abatement for pest bugs and weeds. Having a small number of hens would reduce or eliminate the need for chemical applications of 2, 4-D which is a common lawn pesticide found in the "weed and feed" combination lawn treatments and is linked to cancer and altered reproductive health in men and women. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (2012) "veterinarians have reported in three published scientific studies that dogs with Canine Malignant Lymphoma are about 70 percent more likely to live in homes where 2, 4-D is used to treat the yard compared to dogs without this fatal disease. Canine Malignant Lymphoma is very similar to non-hodgkin's lymphoma in people" According to the Journal of Environmental Health, "Pesticides have been associated with the development of certain cancers in children, including leukemia, sarcomas, and brain tumors. Many classes of pesticides have been shown to adversely affect the developing nervous system of experimental animals. Parental exposure to pesticides has been linked with birth defects in children. New studies suggest that pesticides may compromise 6
the immune system of infants and children. According to Stanhope & Lancaster, children exposed to environmental hazards such as pesticides are at risk for developing learning disabilities, behavioral disorders, chronic diseases such as asthma and cancer, and illness resulting from central nervous system damage (Massey-Stokes, 2002)" (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2006, p. 104). The Fox Lake ecosystem relies heavily on the resources provided by the Fox River and the Chain O Lakes. Pesticides washing into the river and Chain contaminate everything from the fish to the water table. Having a small number of hens in our community would be a prudent investment in our health because it could reduce our dependence on pesticide use. Q: If people are allowed chickens, are they going to ask if they can have a horse next? A: The current petition is to allow backyard hens and is not inclusive of any other additional animals. As with any petition, the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Village Trustees would need to evaluate and vote on each petition on an individual basis. Resources: Stanhope, M., & Lancaster, J. (2006). Foundations of nursing in the community: Community-oriented practice (2nd ed.) (Rev. ed.). St. Louis, MO: Mosby Inc., an affiliate of Elsevier Science. http://extension.missouri.edu/webster/backyardchickens/urbanchickenmanuremanagement- BrieMenjoulet-(ScreenVersion).pdf http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/pdf/em/em8649.pdf http://environs.law.ucdavis.edu/issues/14/1/articles/decker.pdf http://www.nrdc.org/ http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/urbcoyot.htm 7
Proposed Ordinance Guidelines RECOMMENDATION TO: Village Board of Trustees FROM: Planning Commission RE: Preliminary Guidelines Domesticated Hens On Wednesday, December 5, 2012 The Planning Commission reviewed the above captioned guidelines. Michael Lescher made a motion to forward the above captioned guidelines to the Village Board for approval. Danice Moore seconded the motion Ayes: Mark Warnecke, Danice Moore, Michael Lescher, David Gauger Nays: Bob Ebbbert Motion Passes Respectfully submitted by Sue Langowski Secretary 8
PRELIMINARY GUIDELINES DOMESTICATED HENS An ordinance regarding the containment of domesticated hens within the Village s corporate limits. 1: It shall be lawful for any person to keep, permit or allow any hens within the corporate limits of the village residential lots in single family homes under the following terms and conditions: a: No more than 4 hens shall be allowed for each single-family dwelling on less than 1 acre, no more than 8 hens for each single-family dwelling on an acre or more b: No hens shall be allowed in multi-family complexes, including duplexes c: No roosters shall be allowed d: All hens must be kept at all times in a fenced enclosure, with a minimum area of 2 sq. ft. per hen e: Coops must be at least 25 from the neighboring residences, a minimum of 2 sq. ft. per hen, and must be kept in a safe and sanitary condition at all times. Coops built directly on the ground must have a wood floor. Coops will not be considered accessory structures but must meet the building codes for accessory structures. f: Persons wishing to keep fowl within the village must obtain a permit from the Building Department g No slaughter of hens is allowed. h: No sale of hens or eggs 2: The above Section 2 is not intended to apply to geese or ducks: in the village, nor to indoor birds kept as pets, such as, but not limited to, parrots or parakeets, nor to be the lawful transportation of fowl through the corporate limits of the city. Neither shall it apply to poultry kept in Zoning District A-1 and above section one. 9