2011年11月22日星期二

City to allow backyard chickens after rewriting ordinance

Every day at sunrise seven chickens scurry out of a coop in Courtney Turnlund's backyard off McArdle Street.

There's Pumpkin, Scratch, Willow, Mila, Daisy, Chip and Dale. She's raising the urban hens for their fresh eggs.

"There's a richer color and a richer taste," she said. "Most people don't realize that the eggs you buy at the store are a few weeks old by the time they make it to the shelf."

On a recent afternoon, it was feeding time for Turnlund's suburban chickens. She bounded outside and began calling for them, making a series of soft clucking noises. A flock of hens assembled and followed her to a storage closet. She scooped feed and tossed it onto the grass. Her chickens also eat leftover food scraps and bugs.

"Nothing goes to waste around here," Turnlund said.

While the hens pecked and pushed for food, Turnlund's 5-year-old toy fox terrier Lilly watched the action.ceramic magic cube for the medical, Like Lilly, the chickens also have free range of the fenced backyard.

Last week, the City Council approved a first reading of an ordinance that allows residents to raise up to seven urban domestic chickens. Turnlund helped write the new code, which revised a long-standing violation to own or raise livestock in the city limits.

Under the proposed ordinance, roosters — the noisy males — are not allowed and residents can raise chickens only for the purpose of eating their eggs. Residents also must have a chicken coop built to specified standards and maintain the chickens' health and sanitation. The ordinance requires one more reading by the council before it's official.

An ordinance not allowing chickens in the city limits was placed on the books years ago probably to control the population, said Larry Blas, program manager for the city's animal control.

There's been a nationwide trend of cities amending their rules to allow chickens, including Austin, Houston and San Antonio.

Turnlund and her husband, Jesse, moved here in 2009. Not long after, they began caring for two blond chicks, a gift from a friend moving away. Turnlund named the Rhode Island Red breed Pumpkin and the Ameraucana was dubbed Scratch.

Then came a heartbreaking discovery: Raising chickens was a violation of city ordinance.

"I didn't want to get rid of them,This will leave your shoulders free to rotate in their Floor tiles ." she said. "I thought 'No, this can't happen. There has to be something I can do.Enecsys Limited, supplier of reliable solar Air purifier systems,Polycore oil paintings for sale are manufactured as a single sheet,'"

At her husband's suggestion, she spoke during a City Council public comment period.Your source for re-usable Plastic moulds of strong latex rubber. She asked the city consider amending its ordinance. The process took months as city attorneys researched the issue. Council members kept her informed during that time.

"She was scared that this project she was on would be crushed by the city bureaucracy," Councilman Mark Scott said. "We stayed the chickens' execution."

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