Building resilience in the Saugeen Region.
Urban Chickens
The following is copied from the Chicken discussion in the OS group and is written by Anne Finlay-Stewart.Matthew Dick and his wife Janice decided a few years ago that they would fill growing consumer demand by raising organic turkeys. Getting organic “credentials” for their turkeys required that they give the birds a vegetarian diet without antibiotics or animal by-products common to poultry feed such as pork fat or bone meal. It also meant keeping the turkeys on pasture – out in the fresh air and sunshine.
The first time I heard about Matthew Dick he had already lost an appeal to the Ontario Farm Products Tribunal , who upheld a ruling by the Turkey Farmers of Ontario that every turkey producer with quota (raising over fifty turkeys) should keep them under cover to protect them from any risk of infection with bird flu from wild birds. Effectively, these representatives of commercial turkey operations, the smallest of which seem to have confinement barns of 35,000 birds, were telling Matthew that he could no longer raise organic turkeys on his farm.
Enter a newspaper reporter who pointed out the apparent motives of the Turkey Farmers of Ontario, and their glaring lack of evidence of any risk. Enter her readers, consumers who want the option of eating food produced in Ontario under organic standards. And trailing behind but seeing the writing on the wall, enter the (now former) Minister of Agriculture who intervened where she had previously refused, and Matthew and Janice put their Christmas turkeys back outdoors.
In fact, the 60,000 turkeys that had to be destroyed in British Columbia due to an avian flu outbreak were confined birds – never exposed to wild birds or sunshine or fresh air, but regularly wading in each other’s droppings. These are precisely the stressful conditions under which, according to some scientists, pathogens like those causing avian flu thrive and mutate.
Now I’m about to wade into some droppings myself. The kind that got councilor David Adair some interesting correspondence and not the good kind. Why is it that in Owen Sound we can keep pigeons or rabbits or dogs or cats or chain saws for that matter, but not chickens?
Chickens produce much less waste than cats or dogs. It does not smell once it’s dry, and does not contain excessive nitrogen that pollutes waterways. It does not have to be collected into plastic bags that will never break down and put in landfills to become “perpetual poop”. And it can be used as fertilizer because it does not contain pathogens and parasites. Chickens are a gardener’s delight not only for what they add in the way of soil amendment but because they eat weeds, grass clippings, veggie trimmings, slugs and bugs. They don’t attract flies – as a matter of fact they eat them, along with mosquitoes and ticks. Hens, unlike roosters (sorry boys), are fairly quiet and at night they perch indoors in silence. Not always true of cats and dogs and certainly not motorcycles or chainsaws. Rodents are only interested in the chicken feed, which should be stored properly, and predators are no more interested in chickens than they are in squirrels or, frankly, Fluffy.
And the eggs. How much fresher , thriftier or more local could food get?
We’re going to have a committee about this, I can tell. We’re going to have public meetings. And we’re going to hear both sides of every argument that every community before us heard when they changed their bylaws. I am convinced of this because it is the Owen Sound way – give new ideas a chance, let everyone have their say, don’t be too hasty, and always be willing to compromise. And who can argue with that?
But I am equally convinced that one day we will join New York, Chicago, Vancouver, Brampton, Niagara Falls and the other one hundred and growing North American cities who permit and control urban chickens. And one day when my family comes for a holiday from Toronto, another city considering chickens, the Easter eggs will be more local than ever.
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Comment by Douglas Nadler on March 3, 2010 at 12:56pm - I'd agree with Anne that chickens are a delight to have. Having said that, for 19 years i've had a rooster with the girls. In praise of roosters it should be noted that they help keep peace in the coop, are on the constant lookout for danger when they are outside with the girls. (My dear Caruso laid down his life to fight a chicken hawk) and dear Cicero makes sure the coop is a place where pecking is not so terrible that some chickens are killing each other. Roosters add many laughs as well. Well written article Anne! Yes,it's true that our country house has far fewer cluster flies as a result of the chickens eating them and their eggs. the by-laws should be changed here as well. Even in NYC I had Rudie the rooster to wake up the area with his crow; why not here? Finaly, there is much to learn from keeping chickens. It is a way to become a vegetarian, for who would want to kill a chicken by the name of "Egghead" or "Bicke" or kill a noble rooster with the name of "Dante", "Papageno" (who defended the girls from a dog) or "Icabod".?
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