Vancouver City Council unanimously voted on Thursday to amend the current municipal by-laws to allow backyard chicken coops within the city. Male roosters are not to be kept, only hens, which brings Vancouver online with a growing trend that has spread across many urban centres in the region including Burnaby, Richmond, and Victoria, as well as some major American cities such as Seattle, Portland, and New York City to name a few.
As reported by Catherine Rolfsen in the Vancouver Sun, there was some opposition from the BC SPCA about residents being able to provide adequate safe facilities and care for the animals and the BC Poultry Association stated their anxiety about a possible avian flu outbreak effecting their industry, but their arguments did not sway the council from their course of action, which seems to have strong support from the public. A recent vote in the Urban Diner Forum, with passionate arguements for and against the keeping of urban chickens, has shown close to 70% support for the decision. ~ PK
*EDITORS NOTE: No, I did not plan this post to appear beside “Fuel’s Fried Chicken Fridays”, it just happened that way…seriously.
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Colour me ignorant, but don’t you need at least one rooster to get eggs from chickens?
A rooster is only needed if you want the hen to lay fertile eggs that will hatch.
The nice thing about old tough hens is…after they are done laying eggs, you get to make soup from them.
Delicious Chicken Soup.
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