Athabasca council considers backyard hens

ATHABASCA – When Erika and Bill Grove spoke to Athabasca town council May 5, they were quite egg-cited to present their proposal to start a backyard hen project, allowing a few residences to have up to six chickens. 

Citing cities like Edmonton and Vancouver, which allow for hens, but no roosters, Erika Grove requested Athabascans be allowed to start a pilot project like Edmonton did in 2016, with a limited number of licenses and proof that the owners have taken the required courses. 

“Having an opportunity to allow interested residents to have back yard hens may be an opportunity to alleviate the ongoing stress of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Erika explained. “Allowing families to produce their own food as these hens can produce up to one to three eggs per day.” 

Erika pointed out that the Alberta Farm Animal Care website has all the information a potential poultry owner may need including the three courses required by other municipalities. 

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“There are many different courses online being offered to people interested in raising back yard hens. I have included an online course called the Urban Hen which is a three-part virtual back yard chicken series,” she told council. “This course does provide a certificate upon completion which has been acceptable to other towns and cities allowing back yard hens to qualify for hen licenses.” 

Erika went on to explain that each chicken has to be registered provincially to track if there are any diseases and noted that when buying chicken feed at Peavey Mart or UFA you have to provide that ID number. 

“You have to register all your chickens through the Alberta Farm Association so you get your own ID number,” she said. “They know the number of your chickens and if they come down with any disease – of course you call the vet – but they help with the tracking down where, what, how. But it’s very rare for back yard hens to have avian flu or any kind of diseases.” 

Some members of council did express some concerns about predators however. 

“I’m worried that if we have predators in the town coming in to kill the chickens and stuff,” Coun. John Traynor said. “Is that an issue you’ve considered?” 

The Groves informed council they have built a six-foot high fence around the area they want the chicken coop and have made it as predator proof as possible and will remove the feed at night to help mitigate the risk. 

“I think bird feeders are even a risk for predators at this point in our town,” Erika added. “There’s fox sightings and last summer we ended up trapping a couple of skunks, so I have no problem live trapping.” 

Traynor added he is worried about potential neglect as well. 

“If you’re a person that doesn’t take care of their animals, I understand that to maintain a chicken coop you have to take care of it every day,” he said. “Even missing a day or two is irresponsible, so I’m nervous that if we allow this to happen that we’re going to have a lot of complaints.” 

Coun. Ida Edwards countered that argument mentioning it’s the same expectation of pet owners. 

“We license people to own pets in town and we expect them to feed them and clean up after them, in particular the dogs,” she said. “It looks like the requirements to be a chicken coop owner in an urban area is pretty stringent and I have a lot of faith in that.” 

Council decided to wait until they could get more information, asking CAO Rachel Ramey to check with Peace River and other communities of a similar size to Athabasca to find out the pros and cons they’ve encountered. 

Coun. Dave Pacholok also wanted input from the bylaw enforcement officer before making a decision. 

“II think I’d like to have our bylaw enforcer make a comment before I decide,” he said. “And secondly, if this kind of thing should be done, I think it has to be possibly on a trial basis.” 

Before concluding their discussion with council Erika did point out that she and her children created two online polls to get feedback from residents. 

“We were able to gain support for this movement with about 173 residents in favour of having back yard hens,” she stated. “There were only four votes who do not agree and 32 votes for outside of town only, highlighting the majority is for this kind of project.”