This week, Common Sense writer Rey Flores got in good with me.
He wrote on The Herald News' editorial page about why people should be allowed to raise chickens in their yards, even in urban and suburban areas. (In a later e-mail, his reference to "chicken haters" had me nearly wetting myself with joy.) My dad tells me the Trib did an article about urban chicken raising two days later.
That got me thinking about a program held last month at the Center for Sustainable Community in Stelle, a small, green community in Ford County (about 27 miles south of Wilmington). An open house included a program called Chickenomics on "The Basics of Chicken Husbandry - How to start and manage a chicken flock."
I told my husband about it at the time. He wanted to chickens. Think about it: Pets who provide eggs and fertilizer. But Plainfield won't allow it on properties less than 2 acres.
I'm pretty sure I could raise two chickens in a way that would bother my neighbors less than the two dachshunds behind us. (Not that it isn't really sweet that they bark when you so much as breathe.)
I think there are a lot of misconceptions about chickens. So now, I'm thinking I need to research the laws and habits in my spare time (ha!) and see if Plainfield would consider changing their law. Fingers crossed that I get to it and they see the light. Worse-case scenario: I can point out that Naperville allows it and hope they follow suit!
Julie Todd is the night editor at The Herald News in Joliet. She and her
husband are looking to cut the chemicals and get back to basics -- minus the
granola and hemp clothing. They live in a home they bought last year in
Plainfield, where they're making changes to create their own little patch of
utopia.
Well....
If Naperville allows it then how can Plainfield deny you? Perhaps Jolie & Shorewood will follow as well.
However, I've got neighbors (a.k.a. at least 2 entire families in the same house) right next door who have 3 dogs and 3 children who are under the age of 4 and all run wild across the lawn into the street.
I would worry if they had the right to own and raise chickens. I think the problem with something like this is that those who are responsible are never going to cause an neighborhood issue whether it's their pets or livestock. But, those who are irresponsible will make life hell for the rest of us. If it was possible to effectively regulate folks with chickens and/or pets I would be 100% ok with it, I think.
I can remember visiting my grandparents about 50+ years ago in Chicago near 26th and Homan and the 25th and Christiana when I was a child. Each of the neighbors had some type of coop attached to their garage. Some had flocks of ducks, some geese, some had chickens, and others had pigions. It was in the city limits --- with far less than 2 achers of land you were lucky if the width of the parcel of land was 30 or forty feet wide with only about 3 feet between houses... They also had veggies and fruit trees in the back or front yard too... It worked and no one went hungry and they even used the feathers to make great down pillows and comforters...
That's very, very cool.
Thanks for the perspective. it's further proof that the "new" things people are resisting are actually the old things that people totally embraced as good and necessary. And it enforces the fact that previous generations weren't so wasteful. If you suggested someone stuff their own down blanket today with feathers from a bird in front of them, they'd freak out. :)