Remember back in the old days when we clucked our tongues at those societies that housed animals in close proximity to humans = diseases jumping from species to species?

I'm not worried. not a bit.
in condo's I'd be... concerned. then my response would be, "measured". but in single detached? no worries.

Will these people feel the full weight of Canada's bizarre internal egg and dairy cartels come crashing down on them?

marc in calgary - maybe I should check my condo docs to see about rules regarding a potential apiary on my deck

Chickens - perhaps the second most preferred (dogs claim #1) place for fleas to accumulate....

Not that fleas are bad, mind you, just, well, you know.......

I live in a one bedroom apartment, and many people are surprised when they learn I grow barley as a cash crop on my balcony.

So far it's worked out really well. The only drawback is that my downstairs neighbours get a little nervous when I'm maneuvering the combine harvester.

Sounds like a chicken-shit idea to me. BTW, ol' Zog wasn't always a city boy. I've had plenty of poop (from all sort of species) on my shoes and been angrilly chased out of the house for tracking it indoors.

What the hell is the point of only 4 chickens? No June fryers from that lot - nothin' but a few eggs.

Why stop at chickens? Partition the garage, get a pig and feed it table scraps.

Back in the '70s in the UK, teh MArxist-Lenninists, I think (or was it lenninist-Marxists) held a series of meetings on "Can Britain feed itself?"

Mugs,

I'll drink to that. I used to love pork but quit buying it a few years ago because the stuff in the supermarkets is so repellant. Now pork raised on a normal diet of food scraps suplemented by a little straight grain (and perhaps some skim milk if my condo will let me keep a cow too)--- Mmmmmmm.

My head hurts from all the chicken speak.

The chicken stench probably works pretty well as long as there are also non chicken grow-ops nearby.Wonder how big the grant is?

This is nothing new. I remember my father talking about chickens in the backyard when he was growing up in Vancouver. Theyu also had a good garden (Granny was a wonderful gardener), and the runner beans, fertilized by donations from the milkwagon horse, grew up to the second story of their house.

This is nothing new. I remember my father talking about chickens in the backyard when he was growing up in Vancouver. Theyu also had a good garden (Granny was a wonderful gardener), and the runner beans, fertilized by donations from the milkwagon horse, grew up to the second story of their house.

Indeed, why limit ourselves to only chickens?
What about sheep? You get nice sweaters and mutton, and for the lonely batchelor, companionship. Now where did I put those velcro gloves?

The Greater Moncton District Planning Commission seems to have forgotten, it its haste to appear all progressive and green and stuff, the reason why every city in Europe and North America long ago banned the keeping of food animals.

To quote Agent Smith, its the smell.

They eat. They poop. They fart. Sometimes they throw up. All of which pongs. And they die! Particularly on hot days. And when they die they smell MUCH worse than when they were alive, which is saying something.

Now, even a couple of goofy hippies can keep ahead of four chickens in terms of cleaning up spills, poo, missed eggs (oh baby!) and deceased fowl. But they aren't going to keep ahead of 20-40 of 'em, and that's what you need on hand if you want "food sovereignty".

Ever stand next to a modern, well managed and professionally cleaned chicken barn on a fine summer day? The stink would fairly blind you. Imagine the hippie version.

These f-ing people are just deadly determined to turn this country into a festering third world crap hole, aren't they? Luckily their Moncton neighbors will shut them the hell down when the reek starts wafting through the windows on a warm summer day.

What about the chickens? People here seem to be bright enough to know that farmers, while pragmatic, are not arbitrarily cruel. When an animal is sick it gets vet care. Where are the urban chicken farmers going to find a vet familiar with chicken diseases? And are urbanistas aware that chickens don't lay throughout their life? What will they do when their chicken stops producing? Will they let the chicken decline into old age? Are they prepared or capable of humanely dispatching their chickens?

I'm all for farming in the backyard, after all, nothing tastes better than food you've worked for yourself, but it has to be done intelligently, something I think the protagonists in this story (and Vancouver city council) lack.

Oh, the stench of it all! Those econuts have obviously never been in a chicken coup, the stink is overwhelming, and the fighting amongst the hens, ever seen a live plucked chicken?

Canada's chickens are coming home to roost.

I have backyard chickens. I put diatomacious earth in the coop with the litter to control the fleas, of which I have seen none. They don't stink, but they are a good 30 yards from the house anyway. They eat deer ticks, and they provide eggs and they eat scraps. It really doesn't matter to me if they are being pushed by the climate nazis. Stopped clock, twice a day, and all that.

Actually they did this in Vancouver a few months ago. During a radio open line they were interviewing some "so called expert" from UBC who said it would result in more avian flu. Many callers, including myself, pointed out that the avian flu is probably spread more in the chicken factories where the chickens are so genitally modifed they aren't real chickens. We have a hobby farm and have a dozen chickens who produce 7-8 eggs a day. Not sure if its cost effective but they sure are fresh.

Horny Toad

I would prefer a goat actually, no more lawn mowing or tree pruning, give milk, and they don't make a large mess.

heh.. maybe not, that reminds me.. An eccentric old neighbor had one briefly a few years ago. He made the mistake of parking his car inside the enclosure one Friday night. (I think he forgot he had it after an evening at the bar) Seems goats are instinctively inclined to climb up top and stomp in car roofs. Amazing what damage a small billy goat can cause. It was one of those moments you wish you had a camera handy.

Tomatoes, maybe. Grow my own food?

What's next.. doing my own DENTISTRY???

I'm bad enough working on my car. Hire it all out I say...

Chickens are good, but I'd like to have a goat. Think about it, I can milk her and churn it for cheese, and let her cut my grass. A goat would come in handy around my home. Wonder what the city fathers would say about that. I could also swap some cheese for a few eggs. hmmmm

The factory farm system we now have evolved for good reason. It has everything to do with efficiency of scale, low cost, high productivity and specialization, attributes that permeate a modern economy. Four chickens in the 2nd bedroom sounds quaint, but in truth is dirty, noisy and stinky.

can you imagine, 4 chickens to a balcony, 200 apartment unit:-)))

lice-a-loony for the whole neighbourhood

and then there are those whom do NOT speak english well, four and forty sound about the same:-))))

"can you imagine, 4 chickens to a balcony, 200 apartment unit:-)))"

And just imagine if only 1 in 20 had a rooster. :P

Not to put too fine a point on it Dolly but your citiness is showing. You don't churn milk to make cheese. However you do churn cream to make butter.

Idiots. Sure they reduce the shipping cost of the eggs but what about the cost ship the grain and the materials to build the coops. Large battery farms of 100000 plus are easily the most enrgy efficient. That's why the industry has evolved to that scale of operations.

rg, don't tell the Commissars at the Wheat Board.

It people want to have a few hens whats the problem? We are a free people right? right?

What the hell is the point of only 4 chickens? No June fryers from that lot - nothin' but a few eggs.
~Zog at June 28, 2009 9:19 PM

The chicken farmers who grow for KFC go from the hatchlings they are given to producing fully grown adult chickens ready to slaughter in 5-6 weeks.

You might have only 4 chickens, but space is the only limitation on eggs in various stages of incubation.

for any chicken entrepreneurs out there, you might wanna know that eggs are good to use, weeks and even months later as long as you don't wash them or refrigerate them .

Haven't read through all the comments and I'll throw this in, in case it hasn't been covered. As sure as night follows day one of those hens one day will turn out to be a rooster and isn't that rooster crowing at 5 in the morning going to be good fun.

Smell, noise, vermin, disease, unattractive architecture...what could be better to have in the city?

With all those stormwater management ponds developers have been forced to put in, why not have some water buffalo? I'm told that alligator tastes like chicken, maybe we could have alligator farms in those ponds.

Toronto residents have complained long and hard about the poop from the wild Canada geese along the lakeside parks...now the "green-eyed" City-folks want to have chickens in backyards?

This country is going to the dogs...er, chickens.

Beware the "creeping dumb", as some folks have called it.

Big Daddy/Nanny State is a motherclucker.

No autopsies** for Wilbur. Nothing in his** craw.
...-

"Rooster owner seeing red after $50 noise bylaw fine

BROCKVILLE — Wilbur the rooster has gone to that great hen house in the sky.

But Wilbur's crowing habit before he passed away has left his Spencerville owner with a $50 fine to pay and a warning Wednesday from Provincial Offences Court Justice of the Peace Bill Stewart that a subsequent offence will cost $500.

Stewart fined Jackie Dunn of 2800 County Road 21 in Spencerville for breaking an Edwardsburgh-Cardinal Township bylaw prohibiting residents from harbouring animals which make noise that is "likely to disturb the peace and comfort of persons in the vicinity."

The court action was a result of a complaint by neighbouring property owner Ron Sloan made to the township's bylaw enforcement officer, Paul Van Luit, during the afternoon of Oct. 23, 2008.

Dunn testified other roosters in the neighbourhood, as well as dogs and a machine shop, create noise and pointed out her rooster and four laying hens were not let out of a barn until mid-morning.

But Stewart dismissed her arguments, noting the complaint was specific to her rooster and the bylaw applies regardless of the time of day."
http://www.nugget.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1589991
...-

**"Night of the living dead"
http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/

you can look up the price of chicken in 1925 by googling(1925 morris NJ)
everyone and their brother raised chickens in those days
the store price was 50 cents a pound(whole plucked )..
that amounts to 40 pounds of chicken for one gold ounce
talk about expensive,... no wonder chicken farms thrived in NJ
today the chicken farms are gone and chicken costs 1 dollar and up per pound
the equivalent of 800 pounds of chicken for that same gold ounce..

So what happens when the urabn chicken left wing people move in next to a Peta left wing person in the Annex in toronto?

Is this like matter and anti matter?

Funny, isn't living with your livestock how we ended up getting evian flu from China?

Lets party like its 1699!

Jason; No, I'm pretty sure "evian" originates in the French alps...;)

This is actually a *stupid* idea. 1 in 50 people are susceptible to "farmer's lung", which is not a nice thing to get, can take weeks to clear up, and is caused by an allergy to a mold which commonly grows on Chicken manure or wet hay and the like.

Unless there is a poultry inspector checking out these hen's coops, this should not be done in Condo's.

“Food sovereignty” – doesn’t that term have a strong whiff of Marxism about it? The article in Wikipedia (ok, it’s just a start) defines seven principles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_sovereignty

1) “Everyone must have access to safe, nutritious and culturally appropriate food in sufficient quantity and quality to sustain a healthy life with full human dignity.”

In other words, even if you don’t produce, you have a right to somebody else’s production without compensation.

2) “A genuine agrarian reform is necessary which gives landless and farming people – especially women – ownership and control of the land they work and returns territories to indigenous peoples.”

There’s that idea of marxist expropriation again. And approved victim groups.

3) “Food Sovereignty entails the sustainable care and use of natural resources, especially land, water, and seeds and livestock breeds.”

Who could be opposed to sustainable use of natural resources? Of course some people have different ideas of what “sustainable” means. From this it looks like it means at least socialization of someone else’s intellectual property, and it probably means no to mean, nasty, agricultural fertilizers or pesticides.

4) “Food is first and foremost a source of nutrition and only secondarily an item of trade.”

Sounds like another excuse for socialization. Also agricultural protectionism and a recipe for high prices for that other protected species of marxism – the urban workers. How’s that working out for Hugo Chavez?

5) “Food Sovereignty is undermined by multilateral institutions and by speculative capital.”

Uh, oh, the marxist language is getting less obscure.

6) “Social Peace. Everyone has the right to be free from violence.”

Also sounds good, but redefining a positive state such as “peace” or “justice” with the modifying adjective “social” also gives a distinctly marxist flavour.

7) “Democratic control. Smallholder farmers must have direct input into formulating agricultural policies at all levels.”

Who can argue with democracy? Unless it means using pseudo-democratic means to deny individuals the right to make their own production and distribution decisions. Canadian Wheat Board anyone?

But best of all, use of the term “food sovereignty” by urban “local post carbon groups” allows them to sound like hip revolutionaries. I wonder if they wear Che t-shirts while they’re “recycling” the second hand straw?

On a completely unrelated matter, I see that a poster with the handle, Horny Toad (@10:49 pm)has referred to "genitally modified chickens". Is that a facilitative modification?

A genitally modified chicken is known as a "Capon".

Unpleasantly for the greens, Phantom is right. One of the greatest sanitation improvements in human history, after clean water supply and municipal sewage systems, was the removal of large numbers of animals out of cities. Having high population concentrations and large quantities of excrement in the same location is a recipe for disease and noxious pests on a scale unseen since the 19th C in Europe. Transportation activists so often talk about the numbers of people killed in car accidents, but they never talk about the vastly larger number of avoided deaths from getting horse transport out of cities.