Bane workshop full, Backyard Chickens voted down

This post expired on December 08, 2022.

We have a very interesting group of attendees for Peter Bane’s workshop presentation on Sunday. Peter will speak on “Designing Resilient Communities: How our Towns and Suburbs can Incubate the new Eco-Agriculture and Launch a Food Security Revolution”, building on his handbook. This is for people/families with a quarter-acre lot or a small farm, in the city, suburbs, or plans for same.

Already suggested is to have him back in the summer and organize a tour of all Transition Town projects in the province, consulting and teaching as he goes. You can get his book, 500 pgs of well crafted advice on starting up a ‘garden farm’ on your city lot (like he did in Bloomington IN) The Permaculture Handbook, Garden farming for town and country. see www.permaculturehandbook.com for more on contents.

Closer to home, our illustrious councillors voted against a pilot project in Wards 1 and 2 for backyard chickens. This was last monday. It will come to council for ratification (same people with different scope of duty and procedure) on Dec 12. You can raise a cry of disagreement, after all many cities allow backyard chickens without ill effects. A pilot project is just that: a test case to find out the facts.

Write to the city clerk at clerk@hamilton.ca to have your letter appended to the agenda for the Dec 12 meeting. Write your councillor too.

Here is the letter I send, based on Ryan McGreal’s in www.Raisethehammer.ca

Do it soon.

Dear Mayor and Members of Council,

On December 4, 2012, the planning committee voted against a pilot project in wards 1 and 2 that would allow residents to keep a small number of backyard hens, even though the evidence does not support the objections that were raised.

Other municipalities that have legalized backyard hens have not experienced significant numbers of complaints.

• Allowing backyard hens is not a ‘slippery slope’ to allowing cows, goats or other large farm animals.

• Hens are no more harmful than cats or dogs from a public health perspective.
• Hens are quieter than dogs, especially large dogs.

Quite simply, a bylaw that allows the responsible ownership of a small number of backyard hens poses no significant risk of harm. There is no good reason not to support this proposal – especially given that it is only a pilot for wards 1 and 2, and the councillors for those wards support it.

I ask council to reverse the decision of the planning committee and approve this pilot project. Then, if the negative outcomes that some councillors fear materialize, council will have a chance to evaluate the results of the pilot and decide accordingly.

Respectfully,