Limit of 4 backyard chickens per home, Kitchener city staff recommends

Kitchener's new backyard chicken bylaw is starting to take shape, with city staff suggesting limits on the number of chickens people can keep and what they can do with the eggs.

A report prepared by city staff recommends no more than four chickens should be allowed per household. Residents would not be allowed to keep roosters or sell the eggs or manure produced.

• Kitchener re-evaluates 28-year-old chicken ban

"We're proposing that chickens be banded, with owners' contact information so if they do get out and are at large we have the ability to return them back to the property," GloriaMacNeil, the city's director of bylaw enforcement toldCBC News.

Staff also recommend the coops be set back 1.2 m from the rear lot line and 3 m from the side lot line and the coops must be inspected by the city, and anyone wanting to keep chickens will have to pay a $50 registration fee.

Compromise is key

"We've done where we've tried to be very permissive with the bylaw in order to allow most people to have them, but there might be situations where people are not able to," said MacNeil.

It's a compromise between those who want backyard birds and those who worry they'll be neighbourhood nuisance.

The city decided to review the 28-year-old bylaw last August after KitchenerresidentHeidi Wallwas forced to give up her four backyard chickens when public complaint and media attention drew attention to her coop.

MacNeil said staff have worked for the better part of a year to draft the bylaw, and drew on the experience of cities such as Brampton, Kingston and Guelph communities that currently allow backyard hens.

"From what we heard from each of those municipalities, they don't see a lot of complaints in relation to backyard chickens. So the programs in their municipalities have been running well."

The recommendations will go before Kitchener city council on Nov. 7and if approved, the bylaw will be in place as early as next year.