Greg Robert’s house in the Township of Madoc, Ontario, is closer to the cows grazing across the road than it is to some of his closest neighbors.
But on this large rural property about 40 km north of Belleville, Ontario, it is against the law to keep chickens in the backyard.
Robert said, “I don’t understand why.” “Especially when you think about how rural it is.”
Robert moved last year from a smaller property in Pembroke, Ontario, where he used to keep a few chickens, a cow, and some pigs.
If people in downtown Toronto can keep chickens, why can’t we?– John Stopa, township of Admaston/Bromley
Only after he moved did he find out that Madoc bylaws say that people in rural areas who want to keep chickens must own a lot that is at least six hectares. It would be about the size of seven and a half Canadian football fields.
If you don’t have that many chickens, you can’t have even one that lays eggs.
Even though Toronto is moving toward apermanent urban hen programIn eastern Ontario, some rural towns don’t let people keep any birds in their backyards.
Due to a patchwork of different rules in the area, chickens may be legal in one township but not in the next, and some people in the most strict towns are pushing for change.
People are more likely to grow grass than food
Looking for solutions, Robert renewed an online petition posted nearly three years earlier calling on the township to allow residents “to raise a small number of backyard chickens/hens, subject to reasonable controls and regulations.”
Even though there are only a little more than 2,000 people living in the township, the petition had more than 1,100 signatures at the time of publication.
Susan Hetherington started the first petition in April 2020, soon after she moved to Madoc “specifically” so she could keep a few chickens and rabbits.
Hetherington’s property is big enough to fit a barn, but at only about one hectare, it is not big enough to keep chickens.
“There are only farms around here,” she said. “That’s stupid.”
Backyard chickens have a lot of benefits, say people who support the policy. With food prices going up,Fastest annual rate in decadesIf you buy chickens, you might be able to save money on eggs.
For Robert, they would also give him some independence and control over his food supply, which supporters say is especially important in rural areas where there aren’t many grocery stores.
“We tend to grow lawns instead of food these days,” Robert said. “We could all be a little less dependent on grocery stores and a little more self-sufficient.”
But some people are less sure.
Shannon Banfield has lived in Madoc for a long time. She said she doesn’t mind the hens, but they can get “a little out of hand.”
Banfield said a neighbour once kept about 30 chickens on the property, and the birds roamed into her yard to dig up her flower bed.
Banfield is worried that looser rules might make people less likely to follow them, which could lead to more fights between neighbors.
She said she wouldn’t mind a change to the bylaw if it was enforced by something other than neighbor complaints, like a system for registering the birds.
Loyde Blackburn, the mayor of the Township of Madoc, did not answer when asked for a comment.
Different laws all over the regio
Matt Walker ran for mayor of the Township of Madoc in the last election, but he lost. His platform was to fight against what he sees as too many rules, such as rules about chickens.
Walker said that bylaws in eastern Ontario range from “reasonable restrictions” to complete bans on chickens.
“When you open the map, bans are right there,” he said.
Walker said that the bylaws are enforced based on complaints. This means that some residents may choose to break all of the rules, but it would only take one complaint for the authorities to act.
On one end of the range of rules, the nearby Township of North FrontenacProvides a specific exemption from zoning for backyard chickens, allowing up to sixHens for a property that is between 0.2 and 1.2 hectares, and more if the property is bigger.
Some people in nearby townships that don’t have these exemptions are trying to get the minimum property requirements lowered.
John Stopa, a minister in the Township of Admaston/Bromley, which is about 55 kilometers south of Pembroke, asked each candidate in the most recent municipal election what they thought about backyard chickens.
Stopa wants to keep about five hens on his more than 0.5-hectare property. The township’s current bylaws, he said, require him to have two hectares before he would be allowed to keep chickens.
“I think what they had in mind when they were thinking chickens was somebody with a chicken farm,” he said. “If people in downtown Toronto can keep chickens, why can’t we?”
Admaston/Bromley is currently doing a poll to find out what people think about the issue.
Minimums for rural properties are “unreasonable.
Urban municipalities across Canada are engaged in a similar debate. Bylaws in cities range from lenient to strict.in VictoriaWhere chickens have been allowed in backyards for a long time, to strict, asin Ottawa where the birds are banned.
Wanda Martin, a nursing professor at the University of Saskatchewan who has studied backyard chickens, said that the birds are more likely to bother neighbors in cities than in rural areas.
“It doesn’t make sense that someone wouldn’t be able to build a coop if they have an acre or more of land,” she said.
Martin’s research shows that opposition in cities is often caused by a lack of understanding about how small urban hen operations are different from larger chicken farms. She also said that people might not trust their neighbors to take good care of the birds, which could cause noise and smell problems.
She said that more “dogmatic” opposition might come from a belief that chickens belong in the country, not in the city.
But since he moved to Madoc, Robert has learned that chickens can be illegal even in the country. He said that he will probably write a proposal to the Township of Madoc council asking for a small change to the current rules.
“It won’t make me more likely to be self-sufficient or start a homestead,” Robert said. “But it’s nice to get a little bit of control back when you know where some of your food comes from.”