Why did the chicken cross the road?
According to Coun. Ray Watkins, it was to get to the city’s “legal hen operation across the street.”
All jokes aside, council laid their discussion around backyard hens to rest at Monday night’s meeting. Council amended the city’s animal control bylaw to allow the flightless feathered fowl and added $1,600 to the city's 2019 revenue budget to cover the estimated licence fees related to the new bylaw.
Coun. Natalie Joly said she was glad to see the bylaw take flight.
“I’ve been to two of the hen pilot programs in St. Albert and it is great to see how much the families are enjoying being able to produce their own food,” she said. “I’m glad to see this going through today.”
Monday’s decision is a culmination of a successful pilot project the city ran in 2017 and 2018. Three households took part in the pilot project (although seven in total had submitted applications to participate). The city had originally planned to take as many as 20 applicants. The participating households were in the southern area of St. Albert, with two being in Grandin and one in Akinsdale.
The households completed a hen-keeping course and were checked on throughout the year. The city stated it received no complaints about the hens from neighbours or the public during the pilot project.
While the hen bylaw officially passed, council also needs to amend its land use bylaw to allow for backyard hens. Councillors gave first reading to that amendment Monday and has a public hearing set for Feb. 4.
If everything passes at that time, potential hen owners will need to follow several steps before setting up their coops.
First, they must show proof of completing hen-handling training and provide a site plan showing the location of the hen coop – which would only be permitted in the rear yard of residential properties and must be fenced in.
The bylaw would also ban roosters; limit the number of hens per household to four, all of which have to be four months or older; and hen owners can’t sell the eggs they produce or slaughter their chickens at home.
As for coops, they have to be set back a minimum of one metre from the side and rear property lines, three metres from the windows and doors of dwellings and 1.5 metres from the home. Coops need to be roughly 100 square feet in size. Homeowners can combine the coop with their sheds to save space, as long as it doesn’t exceed the 100-square-feet requirement.
