Urban chickens move to rural roost

Louise Hanavan collected the last two eggs from her backyard hens Monday and then readied the birds for a winter's trip up north.

North to Hants County, that is.

Her three hens will be welcomed in the farming belt of Nova Scotia, she says, a far cry from the reaction they garnered in Halifax.

Ms. Hanavan moved into Edinburgh Street about a year ago and brought the hens on board last spring. Collectively, they lay about 14 eggs a week.

Within months, complaints were lodged with the city and she was informed that urban farming was against land-use bylaws on the peninsula.

Recently she was ordered by the city to get rid of the three birds by Feb. 29 or risk prosecution.

On Monday, just before placing the birds into a Rubbermaid container for their car trip, Ms. Hanavan says she's not sure why the trio had naysayers clucking their disgust.

"Three chickens in the city is not really a big deal," she said Monday, as TV cameras and reporters quickly stomped a track into her small, snow-covered yard.

"They don't need a whole lot of space . . . and they're pretty simple animals and easy to take care of."

Come spring, the chickens will end up at the Cole Harbour Farm Museum.

"I'm really happy that (they've) agreed to take them in and I think they'll live a long and happy life there."

City staff is currently investigating the practice of urban farming and plan to bring a report back to a future meeting of the Peninsula Community Council.

But she's not sure if the city will change its bylaws in time to restore the hens to her backyard coop.

If the report is in favour of bylaw amendments, and councillors concur, it could take months to facilitate any legislative changes.

She acknowledges that the space in her backyard is limited, so she likely won't increase their number, even if the city does give a green light to her urban farm.

"I don't think it would be appropriate for somebody to have 200 chickens in the city, but I think it's perfectly appropriate to have three chickens in the city. And I don't think five would be ridiculous either."

Most of her neighbours would be in favour of the hens' return, she says, because they have been "great."

The skeptics, she says, are people worried about the chicken feed enticing rats into area backyards.

Frances Murray, who can see the chicken coop from her backyard on adjoining Almon Street, says that's a legitimate concern.