Friday, July 17, 2009

The Underground Chicken Movement

I can't recall what sparked my interest in chickens, but it has been niggling in the back of my mind for about five years. I perused a book from the library on raising chickens in the city, years ago, but that was as far as I got.

Until yesterday. I got the book Keep Chickens, by Barbara Kilarski, and I read the whole thing in two hours.

I am so excited to know that there are many others who have an interest in raising chickens in the city. Not just a few, mind you, but MANY! In cities like LA, San Diego, San Francisco, Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, Minneapolis, Boston, and Madison!

Columbus has a municipal code agains the keeping of Chickens and other farm animals:

Sec. 14-7. Keeping of animals.
No person shall keep, sell or offer for sale any horses, cows, pigs, goats, sheep, bees, rabbits, chickens, geese, ducks or other fowl, or any domestic animal, except as provided in section 14-11, or construct or use shelters therefore within the city without the authorization of the city council. Applications for permits shall be made to the clerk. This section shall not apply to the keeping of small caged birds, small caged animals or reptiles or aquatic and amphibian animals, kept solely as pets.

If very large municipalities see the benefit, I feel as I have hope in my little town.

I need to get organized, and see if there are others in Columbus who are on board with such a crazy idea. Let this new adventure begin!

4 comments:

  1. Kathy,

    My wife Sarah and I also interest in raising hens for the eggs. Lets talk; what have you found out so far? We do not know where to start.

    Mike
    Columbus, ohio

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  2. We would love to figure out how to move this forward.

    My wife and I live in Columbus and think it would be fantastic if there was a way to make this work.

    Brad

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  3. Fantastic! I have put a call into City Hall about applying for a special permit. I have not heard back from them, and that's as far as I've gotten with this. So glad to hear there is interest!

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  4. You'll need to get a hold of Dr. Messer at the Columbus Health department he is the one in charge of permits. It is a tedious process. I think it is funny how people can have a whole mess of dogs and dog poop in their back yard but residents can't have 6 hens and compost their droppings.

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