Dear Editor,

An underground “urban chicken” movement has swept across the United States in recent years. Citizens in many cities and towns are known to have had chickens residing illegally behind city fences. But grassroots campaigns, often inspired by the expanding movement to buy locally produced food, are leading municipalities to allow limited numbers of hens within city limits.

Cities such as Anne Arbor, Mich.; Fort Collins, Colo.; and South Portland, Maine, have all voted in the past year to allow residents to raise backyard poultry. Madison, Wisc., reversed its poultry ban back in 2004. Locally, Bourbon and South Bend have both approved small scale backyard chicken keeping. Warsaw residents have the opportunity to join this movement by encouraging their city council representatives to vote YES for the proposed backyard chicken ordinance this Monday night.

Raising backyard chickens is an extension of an urban farming movement that has gained popularity nationwide. Home-raised livestock or agriculture avoids the energy usage and carbon emissions typically associated with transporting food. After all, fresh is not what you buy at the grocery store. Fresh is when you go into your backyard and harvest your own food.

Backyard chickens are quiet. No roosters are allowed! Only hens may be kept and they must be kept completed enclosed. Coops can be attractive, cottage-like additions to one’s yard. They are smaller than most lawn mower sheds and much cuter! At night the hens are locked inside the structure safe from predators, by day they scratch and peck in their co lately enclosed runs.

Keeping micro-flocks of chickens as pets, garden helpers, compost makers, bio-recyclers and local food suppliers is leading the way as the most popular self-sufficiency trend.

Sincerely,
Ellen Schwendeman
Warsaw