Easton City Council Says No to Chickens in City Backyards

By Christina Georgiou

"Firecracker" a Silkie/Cochin mix chicken, is held by
Nicole Kilhullen, 11, of Stewartsville, NJ during
"Chicken Dialogues", a public information session
on the keeping of backyard chickens that was
held a tthe Nurture Nature Center in August.

Those looking for fresh eggs in the City of Easton will have to buy them at the farmers' market, as city council members decided against changing city ordinances to allow the keeping of chickens within city limits Tuesday night.

Council members cited various concerns for problems keeping fowl within the urban environment could potentially cause, and nearly all present at the informal council committee meeting said they would not support the necessary ordinance change to allow the practice.

The issue was raised in May, after College Hill resident Annie Porter requested that local elected officials consider overturning the ban to allow keeping up to six hens, but no roosters, per property. Porter said she wanted to keep the birds to provide fresh eggs for her family, and for their educational value for her children.

A public meeting was held in August at the Nurture Nature Center, where about 60 people gathered for an information session outlining the pros and cons of keeping chickens in urban and residential areas. Most at the meeting, which was also attended by Easton city council members Jeff Warren, Roger Ruggles, Ken Brown, and Sandra Vulcano, seemed to favor of the idea.

A meeting to gather public input was also held in September, but was much more sparsely attended, with about half a dozen city residents speaking in favor of changing the law.

"We've gone through a fairly lengthy process," said Ruggles, who heads the council's planning committee, Tuesday night.

Ruggles said he studied the matter thoroughly, as well as taken input from the city's health and code enforcement officers, and he feels there are more potential issues the city will face if it changes the law than there are potential advantages.

"One of the things in my reading that was never brought up is that chickens draw predators," he said.

"You may be able to protect the chickens with chicken wire, but then the predators go after cats and dogs," said Mayor Sal Panto. "I'm not in favor of changing the law, but maybe (keeping chickens) could be used as a showcase at the urban farm (in South Side)."

"I learned a lot," Vulcano said of her attendance at the Nurture Nature information session. "And I learned that I really don't want chickens living near me."

"I don't see a reason (the law) needs to change," Brown said.

"There are wonderful eggs at the farmers' market," said Councilwoman El Warner. "I'd like to not ever discuss this again."

Council to Continue to Consider Urban Chickens

By Christina Georgiou

Firecracker, a Silkie/Cochin mix chicken, is
held by NicoleKilhullen, 11, of Stewartsville, NJ
at a public discussion of the pros and cons of
keeping backyard chickens held at Nurture
Nature Center last month. Several residents
are requesting that Easton City Council
consider lifting a ban on keeping chickens
in the city and allow small personal
flocks so residents can have fresh eggs.

 Half a dozen residents voiced their support for overturning the current ban on keeping chickens in urban Easton at Tuesday evening's city council committee meeting, though a city health inspector said the practice could create problems.

Ted Verasink, one of Easton's two part-time health code inspectors, worried that overturning the ban would create an enforcement problem, and that those that failure to keep the birds responsibly might cause odor, insect, and rodent issues.

"I'm not sure it's going to be easy to maintain chickens in the city," he said.
Verasink also wondered if chicken waste could cause issues disposing of manure.

"In the urban setting that we have, I think we should give a great deal of thought before we change anything," Verasink said, though he conceded that those who might keep chickens and follow good animal husbandry rules would probably not cause any problems. "Those that wouldn't are the potential issue."

But residents in support of allowing the keeping of chickens inside of city limits say the proposal to keep small flocks with no roosters would be unlikely to cause problems.

"I understand the issues with people that don't behave well," said Joanne Czeck of South Fifth Street. "I promise I wouldn't be one of them."

She suggested that the amount of chicken manure a small flock would produce can easily be taken care of by covering it with straw, and that if she were allowed to keep the birds, they'd always be in a coop, "because there's hawks, you know?

"A small flock, it's just harmless," Czeck said.

South Side resident Melissa Beveridge also spoke in favor of allowing residents to keep chickens in the city.

"We would like to have chickens also," she told council members. "It would be a very small flock. I did my homework, and then found out I couldn't do it."

Rich Cook, who lives on Sixth Street, said that the urban nature of Easton isn't a barrier to keeping chickens responsibly, and that they can easily be kept without disturbing neighbors or causing health concerns.

"Nothing we've talked about is new. Many cities larger than Easton allow the keeping of chickens," he said, noting, "There are no limitations to how many chickens you can have in New York City."

Cook said the practice is growing in popularity.

"The fact is, this is a movement that is taking place across the country...You need to be open-minded about this," he said. "The people that don't 'get' chickens won't get this."

While some might not be responsible animal owners, the majority likely will be, and changing the law is unlikely to bring too many chickens to the city, Cook opined.

"There's probably a small number of people that will embrace this," he said. "The people that invest in this probably have done their research."

Small urban yards shouldn't be a real issue either, Cook said, as chickens only need about four square feet apiece.

College Hill resident Annie Porter, whose request in May prompted Easton city council to reconsider the ban, said she appreciates the consideration officials have given the matter.

"I just want to plug again to consider changing the ordinance," she said, adding that a small flock of chickens is kept by her class at the school where she teaches.

Porter said chicken manure can easily be composted, and said that chickens far less maintenance than dogs, and that both kinds of animals should be considered as pets.

Considering the chickens as pets would circumvent requests from residents wanting to keep other, more labor-intensive and potentially annoying fowl such as guinea hens, at their residences in the city, she said.

Porter said that chicken feed for a small flock is no more likely to attract vermin than regular bird seed, and that city officials finding that a family has been keeping a flock of 11 chickens at their home in the West Ward, with the birds being housed in the basement at night shows that, "the worst case scenario already exists."

While she'd like city codes to allow up to six hens, she said a new ordinance might specify the number of chickens one could keep based on yard size.

"Maybe if you have a postage stamp-sized yard, you only have enough room for one or two hens," Porter said.

City council members, some of who attended a public discussion of the matter held at Nurture Nature Center in August, seemed on the fence about the possibility of changing the law, saying they still have questions about if chicken-keeping could cause problems.

"I have several concerns, and one of them is equality," said Councilman Roger Ruggles, who heads the council's planning committee, which is set to make a final recommendation about the matter to city council. "Part of the setback issue is to prevent noise...and chickens draw predators--skunks...all types of animals that come after chickens."

Mayor Sal Panto said he's worried a law based on yard size could be unfair and create "classes of people", something he wants to avoid.

"I don't think it's fair for the city to say 'you have a bigger back yard, you can have them' but with a smaller yard you can't," he said. "That's one concern I have about (regulating it) by yard size."

Lafayette College's director of the Landis Community Outreach Center, Bonnie Winfield, speaking on behalf of the West Ward Neighborhood Partnership, suggested that chickens might be kept in a co-op situation to be located at the Urban Farm in the city's South Side, and that those who contribute could then be entitled to a share of the eggs produced.

"I think maybe having a co-op might be a solution for everybody," Ruggles said, adding that the city council planning committee will be discussing the matter, as well as taking more input from the city's health department before making a formal recommendation to city council some time in the coming weeks.

Panto said he appreciated attending residents for making their wishes known.

"Thank you for you enthusiasm," he said.

Pros and Cons of Keeping Poultry Discussed at "Chicken Dialogues"

By Christina Georgiou

About 60 people attended Thursday evening's "Chicken Dialogues" at the Nurture Nature Center, a presentation and question and answer session on the practice of keeping backyard chickens, and most members of the public seemed favorable towards the idea of allowing the practice in Easton, but some city officials who attended the event seem unconvinced.

Two experts presented various aspects of what keeping backyard poultry entails. Brian Moyer, program director for the Penn State Extension, talked about the physical requirements of keeping a small flock of chickens in non-farm environments, while Stacy Yoder of Boucher and James discussed how zoning ordinances regulating the practice are crafted, using several examples of existing laws in the region.

Moyer said that keeping chickens in residential settings has been gaining popularity in recent years, and that with proper management and provided the small flocks are entirely comprised of hens with no roosters, they're fairly unlikely to cause problems in the neighborhood.

"I do a lot of backyard poutry classes, so this is a very popular topic," he said. "There are ways to mitigate the issues."

Chickens that spend some time outdoors need one square foot per animal, and those keep entirely indoors need at least three square feet per hen, he said.

Most chickens live up to 10 years, but are only capable of laying eggs for three to six of those years, Moyer noted, and a flock of 10 chickens will lay an average of nine eggs per day for about 260 days of the year.

"So we have to consider...what are you going to do when she stops laying?" he asked.

Keeping the coop clean and also having a well-constructed, aesthetically pleasing coop, along with placing it far enough away from neighboring properties are some of the keys to avoiding potential issues keeping poultry can raise.

Having a plan of what to do with chicken waste is also imperative, Moyer said, noting that while chicken manure makes good garden fertilizer, it can't immediately be worked into garden soil.

"If you don't have a good way of composting it, it will burn your plants," he said.

Storing chicken feed correctly is also important.

"Rodents can be a big issue if you don't store the feed correctly or keep the coop clean," Moyer noted. "But keeping the food in metal trash cans can solve a lot of issues."

The chickens themselves must also be protected from predators, such as hawks, raccoons, and weasels, and in addition to an adequate shelter, the property around the chickens should be well-maintained.

"If you've got weeds, you've got a place for predators to hide," he said. "Weasels are the worst because they don't necessarily kill their food."

Having a rooster in the flock is not necessary for egg production, he noted.

Stacy Yoder, left, of Boucher and James, with Penn
State Extension program assistant Brian Moyer, discuss
various aspects of keeping backyard chickens in urban
environments.

"You do not need roosters to have eggs. There's no good reason to keep roosters unless you're going to eat them," he said, adding, "Roosters are noisy. They aren't nice, but they aren't supposed to be nice. Their job is to protect the flock...Hens aren't going to make much noise."

Yoder, whose company specializes in creating ordinances for municipalities also said backyard chickens, and subsequently laws governing if and how they are to be kept, have gained popularity in recent years.

In most places, keeping poultry is a zoning issue, but some places, like Bethlehem, have chosen to make chickens and other livestock a stand-alone issue.

"When regulating for chickens, especially in an urban setting, it would be an accessory use," she said. "Zoning can regulate buffering, like landscaping to screen the chickens from neighboring property owners."

But however a municipality chooses to regulate the practice, "All zoning ordinances should be easily enforced," she said. "You want to keep it simple...something that's easy for code officers to get a quick look and verify that everything's in order."

Bethlehem, the nearest municipality on which she had specific information, allows the keeping of chickens by special exception only, which are approved directly by the city council, not the zoning hearing board.

"I can't say the City of Bethlehem is really pro-chicken," she said, noting that even with special permission, keeping fowl is limited to the "rural" districts and compliance with the law is checked by the animal control officer.

Also in Bethlehem, "The permitter accepts full responsibility for the capture of any animal that escapes his or her presence," she said.

Some of the attendees Thursday evening live in municipalities that allow the raising of backyard chickens for egg production and helped answer questions from Easton residents.

One noted that one of the example ordinances Yoder provided required a minimum of three acres for chickens to be kept.

"The requirement for three acres seems more appropriate for dairy cows, not chickens. That seems a little ridiculous," he said.

"There is no specific formula," said Yoder. "It depends on the municipality."

She noted that in a city like Easton, having a law that required a coop be set back a minimum number of feet from a neighboring property line might make more sense.

Four members of Easton's city council were present Thursday--Jeff Warren, Roger Ruggles, Ken Brown, and Sandra Vulcano. None of the four indicated their position on the matter directly, but comments from two indicated that if the city changes the ordinance, many still may not be able to keep chickens.

"One of the things we need to think about is what can happen in a neighborhood. We can write a code, but to enforce that code can be a big issue," Ruggles said. "In a good situation, there's not a problem. But in a bad situation, you're impacting the neighbors and the neighborhood. It's not the good people; it's what happens when things start to slide."

He added,"As a councilperson, one of the things I have to think about is, how do we distribute our resources?...Implementation is a big deal."

Ken Brown said it's important to "look at the total picture" when considering changing Easton's chicken laws, and that keeping chickens would be more suited to owner-occupied properties over rental situations.

"I think everyone needs to work together for this to work well," he said. "I think it will work well in College Hill much more than in Downtown or the West Ward."

"I think this could be done with a bit of forethought," countered on resident. "If we took the worst case scenario, we wouldn't have dogs. Certainly there will be irresponsible people, but do we want to base our laws on the lowest common denominator? I think it's doable."

Another presentation attendee suggested that "a volunteer chicken delegate" might act as a go-between chicken owners and the city, which would help with enforcement and eliminating potential problems and issues.

It was also suggested that a co-op could be formed to allow people who live on properties unsuitable for keeping chickens to still do so and also get the benefits of having fresh eggs. The program could be run in a similar fashion to the city's community gardens.

A young attendee pets "Firecracker" a
Silkie/Cochin mix chicken, held by Nicole
Kilhullen, 11, of Stewartsville, NJ. Firecracker
and another unnamed chicken accompanied
the Kilhullens to "Chicken Dialogues" and
uttered not so much as a peep during the
presentation.

 "My understanding is that the chicken ordinance is fairly recent, but that before there was a chicken ordinance, the city wasn't overrun with chickens or chicken smell," said another attendee, who added that she's in favor of laws governing the practice as long as it's allowed. "I don't think there are huge numbers of people that will be interested."

About five people indicated in a hand poll that they'd actually be interested in keeping chickens themselves, and about 10 said they might be interested in joining a chicken co-op, but some were the same people.

Ruggles said the city council planning committee will likely hold a discussion of the matter in city council chambers on either Tuesday, Sept. 10 or Tuesday, Sept. 24.

Thursday's presentation and subsequent discussions expected to take place next month at city council committee meetings were precipitated by a request by a College Hill resident in May that the city reconsider its ban on keeping fowl. She has suggested Easton allow up to six hens, but no roosters, to be kept for egg production.