Chicken in coop @ Both Feet on Main Street. Photo by Dan Toulgoet (Vancouver Courier)
Of course we think so, and so does the Vancouver Courier. Writer Sandra Thomas freely admits that she was initially skeptical about the idea, but the tone in her recent cover story in the community newspaper suggests that she may have changed her tune. Here’s the article:
“I hear that sometimes an egg can get stuck. What do you do then?”
You could have heard a pin drop when a woman attending a June screening of the documentary Mad City Chickens at Langara College asks that question following the film. But unfazed animal scientist Heather Havens, who is often referred to as the “Chicken Lady,” answers without blinking an eye.
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Photo of Les Booth by Dan Toulgoet in Vancouver Courier
While I haven’t had a chance to check out the size, strength and security of these coops, it’s great to see urban chickens hatching businesses in Vancouver.
From the June 5, 2009 edition of the Vancouver Courier.
Businesses prepare for backyard chicken boom
by Sandra Thomas
Main Street is no longer simply a haven of funky restaurants and showcase for fashion designers. It’s now becoming the go-to neighbourhood for backyard chicken supplies.
Backyard poultry farmers stop on the way home from the office to order a bag of chicken feed from Tisol Pet Supply near Main and West 12th Avenue. And they can also purchase chicken coops at Both Feet on Main Street shoe repair at 4410 Main St.
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Image: Granville Magazine
Chicks in the city, Are backyard chickens sustainable, or just stylish?
A glib headline (and tone at times), but a pretty fair article. The last few paragraphs are perhaps the most poignant, with the final sentence being the kicker.
Whatever the benefits hens provide in terms of providing eggs, shortening the food chain, taking are of kitchen scraps or fertilizing the yard, she admits that they’re a luxury. We have the opportunity to choose whether or not to gather our own eggs or buy them from any one of the several vendors our society affords.
[Heather] Jarvey hints, however, that it might not always be so, and that having a few small-scale producers in the community keeps alive agricultural practices that might one day be important for the survival of neighbourhoods and communities.
“Yes, it is a luxury – right now,” she says. “But I’d rather be doing it while it’s a luxury than try to figure it out when it’s a necessity.”
Read the rest of the article on the Granville Magazine site.
Just shy of 100 people have signed our petition in support of an amended animal control bylaw in the City of Vancouver that would allow residents to keep chickens on residential lots. Keeping spreading the word and here’s some choice comments from some of the signers on why they want to see backyard chickens legalized.
I already try and keep my carbon footprint as small as I can by doing most of my shopping within my neighbourhood and purchasing locally grown food whenever possible. I have started a garden and I do a lot of preserving.
Keeping chickens will serve a number of purposes in our household. They will be a good source of protein by providing free run organic eggs for my family, they will provide good manure to fertilise my garden, they will consume table scraps – particularly those that are not compostable (like cooked food and baked goods), and they will help keep my yard and garden weed and pest free.
Properly kept chickens should not smell, or attract vermin.
More Comments after the jump. Read More »
Not much new information here and some interesting links to other city’s regulations.
vancouver.ca/commsvcs/socialplanning/initiatives/foodpolicy/projects/chickens.htm
We’ve heard through the grapevine that Vancouver City Hall has been receiving some very vocal opposition to an amended animal control bylaw allowing backyard chickens.
As is often the case, it would seem that a small, but loud minority is voicing their opposition while those in favour stay quiet… thus leading the powers that be only hearing the opposition.
If you are in support of urban chickens, please write or call City Hall to voice your support for backyard chickens.
email: mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca
phone: 604.873.7276
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