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Back yard chickens

Posted: Jan 9th, 2013, 9:24 am
by Captain77
Great to hear that Penticton Council is allowing back yard hens. A great way to get rid of compost, generate great fertilizer for the garden, and get little gifts in return.

Re: Back yard chickens

Posted: Jan 9th, 2013, 10:11 am
by livewire
As long as they don't make as much noise as the neighbors dog! :sillygrin:

Re: Back yard chickens

Posted: Jan 9th, 2013, 10:24 am
by Queen K
Some people here have chickens, how many is too many and how many do you need to have enough eggs for a family of two? Three?

Without going to the Kelowna chicken thread, are chickens allowed now within city limits too?

Congratulations to Penticton for forward thinking. :smt117

Re: Back yard chickens

Posted: Jan 9th, 2013, 11:50 am
by Captain77
Penticton city staff is now looking into guidelines, but staff suggest no roosters and max. of 5. The kookey part is taking them to the SPCA when they stop laying as no culling would be permitted. SPCA's gonna love that one! Maybe a new business opportunity for a rural farmer to humanely dispose of the old birds?

Re: Back yard chickens

Posted: Jan 9th, 2013, 11:57 am
by Queen K
The old fashioned days of knowing how to cut a chickens head off, drain the blood and pluck is gone. OH WAIT!

That's what youtube is for.

Re: Back yard chickens

Posted: Jan 9th, 2013, 12:11 pm
by grammafreddy
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=16229

Penticton just needs to look at how Vernon is running their backyard chicken bylaws and do the same - simple, straight forward and logical. No need to waste a mess more tax dollars studying this topic to death.

Re: Back yard chickens

Posted: Jan 9th, 2013, 12:19 pm
by glassmaster
Supermarkets have not been around all that long. Before Supermarkets existed ... our food was gathered near our tables. Everyone had gardens or had access to fresh produce nearby. I think that allowing 5 back yard chickens is a great idea ... and I'll be planning a little chicken house of my own. There are some great ideas online. I do wonder if the deer will go after chickens .... or attract them (even more-so) to people's yards.

Re: Back yard chickens

Posted: Jan 9th, 2013, 3:52 pm
by 0gopogo
Here's my young flock at Summerland.
Just started laying beautiful brown eggs, I got these hens recently from a lady by Yellow Lake.

Image

The chickens I had before these stopped laying, so I put put an ad for free chickens and someone from Peachland took them for soup. In other words-they did the dirty work.

Here's a link to the chicken coop we built in town.....mostly from free wood at the dump. :sunshine:
http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/yellowjackets-chicken-coop

Re: Back yard chickens

Posted: Jan 9th, 2013, 4:01 pm
by southy
Yup ... I can see it now. First we had to deal with the deer problem, next it will be chickens. For anyone who has been to the Hawaian Island of Kuaii you know the problem they have with chickens. All it would take is a really good windstorm a few dozen chickens on the loose and WHAMmm ... you've got chickenville. :dyinglaughing:

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=6170510

Relax ... I'm just kidding.

Re: Back yard chickens

Posted: Jan 9th, 2013, 6:15 pm
by callotto
Victoria has allowed urban chicken for a hundred years. They aren't an issue.

Re: Back yard chickens

Posted: Jan 9th, 2013, 10:50 pm
by livewire
I had the opportunity tonight of visiting with a Kelowna city councilor who said to me, thank goodness we have better things to discuss at our council meetings than whether or not we should allow chickens in our back yards.....

Re: Back yard chickens

Posted: Jan 9th, 2013, 10:56 pm
by grammafreddy
livewire wrote:I had the opportunity tonight of visiting with a Kelowna city councilor who said to me, thank goodness we have better things to discuss at our council meetings than whether or not we should allow chickens in our back yards.....


For now. People are just going to do it anyway if they really want them. There already are some urban hens in Kelowna.

Re: Back yard chickens

Posted: Jan 10th, 2013, 6:51 am
by southy
Not to mention some pretty big roosters on council as well! :dyinglaughing:

Re: Back yard chickens

Posted: Jan 10th, 2013, 7:05 am
by Queen K
livewire wrote:I had the opportunity tonight of visiting with a Kelowna city councilor who said to me, thank goodness we have better things to discuss at our council meetings than whether or not we should allow chickens in our back yards.....



One could intreprete this a variety of ways. One way is to argue that because growing ones own bird meat and getting free range eggs could be argued is a poverty issue, the suits at Kelowna's City Hall are clueless over the real issue.

I mean, who has $5-7 dollars on an on going basis to purchase fresh, free run/range eggs? Who has money to purchase organic, non-factory processed chicken meat?

Why are the poor signalled out as having health issues? Or the most health issues? Or is it a rent vs food month?

That person on City Hall hasn't got a freaking handle on the real issue those people in long line ups for the foodbank, Salvation Army hampers and similar services. Imagine an army of citizens who could grow their own chickens/eggs and donate eggs to the foodbank. Now there is an issue worth bringing back to the council meetings, if only they'd lower themselves out of the idea that Kelowna is there only for rich developers.

Re: Back yard chickens

Posted: Jan 10th, 2013, 10:23 am
by livewire
Let me clarify....that person on Kelowna city council didn't say he was opposed to having chickens in backyards....