BACKYARD KEEPERS SAY CHICKENS ARE CLEAN, COMFORTING AND PRODUCTIVE
| HENS IN THE 'HOOD; BACKYARD KEEPERS SAY CHICKENS ARE CLEAN, COMFORTING AND PRODUCTIVE |
|
Copyright 2004 Madison Newspapers, Inc.
Capital Times (Madison, WI)
BYLINE: Judith Davidoff The Capital Times
The chickens that live in a backyard coop at Pam Karstens' home on East
Mifflin Street don't seem to be bothered by the roar of traffic from East
Washington Avenue just a block away.
On a recent chilly morning, some hens are in their nesting boxes, inside a
metal storage shed that Karstens converted into a coop, while others run outside
in an enclosed chicken run.
Karstens has some bantams, small chickens that produce small eggs, and black
australorps, a larger bird. She uses one side of the storage shed to store hay
and chicken feed, which she keeps in a sealed garbage bin.
There is no odor in the coop, and the occasional clucking of the hens clearly
falls below the city's newly passed noise guidelines.
Karstens, who has raised chickens in her back yard for about three years, is
one of an unknown number of Madison residents with outdoor coops, a violation
of
the city's zoning code. In one of those odd bureaucratic paradoxes, the public
health code allows people to own chickens, but zoning regulations prohibit
chicken coops.
Karstens says chickens make wonderful pets and produce warm, fresh eggs that
taste nothing like the store-bought variety.
Just watching chickens is a peaceful pastime, says Jack Kloppenburg, a rural
sociologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
"They are a great pleasure to have around," says Kloppenburg, who
raised
chickens when he was a graduate student at Cornell University in upstate New
York. "As we were working in the garden or sitting in chairs, they'd wander
around, scratch in the dirt and make endearing noises."
Chickens also get praise for keeping insects at bay and producing rich manure
for city gardens.
All good reasons, Karstens, Kloppenburg and others insist, to pass a proposed
ordinance that would allow residents to keep domestic fowl in their back yards.
The current draft would allow residents to keep up to four chickens, but
Karstens, for one, thinks at least 12 should be allowed, space permitting.
Under the proposal, roosters and the butchering of birds would be prohibited.
If successful, Madison would certainly not be the first city to change its
zoning laws to allow urban fowl.
Portland, Ore.; Key West, Fla.; St. Louis and Seattle permit chickens.
Seattle even hosts an annual tour of chicken coops.
So far there has been little public opposition to the local proposal. No one
spoke against the measure at a recent public hearing, though the Public Health
Commission received two written objections to it.
Tommye Schneider, the city's environmental health director, said she has no
significant public health concerns about backyard chickens.
She says there could be odor problems and fly infestation from chicken waste
if people do not clean their coops well, but says the experience of other cities
has not shown disease to be a problem. As with other pets in the city, some
neighbors will like the chickens and some may not, she warned.
Advocates for backyard chickens argue the cause is much grander than warm
eggs and cute pets.
They say it is one way for urban dwellers to reconnect with the earth and the
source of their food.
"How many generations are we going to go in this urban society and have
our
kids not know where our food comes from?" says Laurie Greenberg, a research
consultant in alternative agriculture.
Greenberg says it also speaks to food security.
"I feel more comfortable knowing my children know how to grow vegetables
and
fruits and raise animals," she said.
* Janet Hochstetter grew up on the 1900 block of East Mifflin, just five
blocks east of Karstens' home.
In the 1940s, Hochstetter recalls, backyard chickens were common in Madison.
"There were a lot of people who had chickens at the time and, I think,
all
over the east side of Madison," she says.
Her family had two bantam hens and a bantam rooster.
She also had a one-legged chicken that had been injured in a farm accident on
her uncle's land in Lodi. The hen was a top producer.
"That little girl gave me an egg every single day for three years,"
she says.
She named the banties after family members. The rooster, Mike, named after
her dad, was her favorite.
"I put a string around his leg and I could run and skip and go down to
the
store and he'd sit right on my shoulder," she says.
Hochstetter says that a police officer showed up at her house after a
neighbor complained about the rooster's loud crowing. Soon thereafter her
chickens were sent packing to her uncle's farm.
"I was crushed when I had to get rid of them," she says.
About 50 years later, Brian Whiting and his partner, Alicia Rheal, found
themselves in a similar predicament after a neighbor complained about their
chickens.
They were cited by building inspectors for having an illegal chicken coop in
the back yard of their home in the Bay Creek neighborhood, and also were forced
to find new homes for their birds.
But they didn't give up wanting to raise chickens.
In late January, they held a meeting at their home for people interested in
keeping hens.
Some, like Karstens, were veterans. Others, like Ron Shutvet, were thinking
about it.
"Fewer and fewer kids don't grow up around animals," said Shutvet,
who was
once a farm boy himself. "I think it's great for kids to go out and see
where
eggs come from."
The urban farmers provided feedback to Ald. Matt Sloan, District 13, who is
the sponsor of the domestic fowl ordinance.
If the ordinance passes, Whiting and Karstens said, the group would like to
be an educational resource for people interested in keeping chickens.
"We'd like to take some of the organization and energy we've generated
and
contact the Community Action Commission, which is involved locally with
community gardens," Whiting said. He said they would hope to tap into the
group
's organizational structure to get the word out on raising chickens.
Whiting also said a primary target of theirs would be low-income households
in the city.
Karstens already takes her chickens to Milwaukee to meet with inner-city
children who are involved in urban gardening projects there.
Sociologist Kloppenburg says raising chickens in the city is good for
individuals and the community.
"They provide manure and I think it would be a good thing for the people
in
Madison to have the opportunity to understand the entire cycle of food
production, which often includes animals as a source of nutrients for the soil,"
he says.
He said he hoped there would be minimal resistance to the new ordinance.
"I don't see any downside to it. It's educational for both adults and
children. You begin to get a sense of where our food really comes from."
THE ORDINANCE
As amended, the proposed ordinance would allow residents to keep up to four
chickens. They would have to obtain a license, however, to keep their chickens
in an enclosed space and store chicken feed in a sealed container. Owning
roosters and the butchering of birds would be prohibited.
What's next
March 29: The Plan Commission is expected to take up a measure to allow
backyard chickens.
* April 20: A public hearing before the City Council is scheduled.