Backyard hen owners will now be allowed up to six cluckers, thanks to the advocacy of a young fowl keeper in the city.
On May 31, St. Albert city council approved upping the limit on backyard hens from four to six, after a hen named Marshmallow was bullied when she tried to join a flock and was eventually given up to another family.
Coun. Jacquie Hansen, who proposed the changes to the bylaw, said it's fantastic that, after years of work, the hen bylaw was approved in 2019 and now council is able to make changes to it as residents invite the chickens to their yards.
“It's getting tweaked as we learn more about hens and what their needs are and pecking order and all of that,” Hansen said.
“In light of COVID-19 there's been a real focus on food sustainability, and I think this is just really aligned with that, and it’s the right thing to do.”
Mayor Cathy Heron said residents in St. Albert are now more open to having sustainable food programs in the community, such as backyard hens.
“There's been such a big change in attitudes in our municipality toward this kind of initiative that I just think it's fantastic,” Heron said.
The changes to the bylaw came about after Woodlands resident Alexandra Taphorn, 9, spoke to city council on March 15 about the bylaw, which at first only allowed for four hens per backyard.
In an interview with The Gazette in March, Taphorn said her family had four hens last year named Doodles, T-Rex, Henny Potter, and Anastasia. But after Anastasia, a hen she used to take on walks or snuggle with, died of a seizure, Taphorn brought in a replacement hen, Marshmallow. The new bird, who was white, cute, and sweet, had a tough time integrating with his new flock and was bullied and pecked at by the three other fowl.
Chickens establish a pecking order and react badly to strangers, which left Marshmallow with a bloody neck after his first day with his new family.
Taphorn and her mom, Heidi, went to great lengths to protect Marshmallow and integrate him into the flock, but after two months of fearing for her life, they handed the hen over to another St. Albert hen owner.
“It was super sad,” Taphorn said in March.
The four-bird cap makes it extremely difficult to keep a flock healthy, Taphorn told council. A flock of four would drop to three after a death, endangering the group, as the hens would not produce enough body heat to survive winter. Introducing just one replacement created the risk of the others ganging up on it, as happened with Marshmallow.
“If the city had a rule that made dogs or cats suffer like this, it would be considered mean and inhumane,” Taphorn said.
As a result of Taphorn’s advocacy, council has raised the maximum flock size to six, which will now let owners bring in two or more birds at once, reducing the odds of bullying.
Tracy Tsui, planner with the City of St. Albert, said the new rules will help eliminate the risk of pecking, or bullying, from the flock, as two hens will be allowed to be introduced together.
Bringing in two birds at a time will also help them socialize together before meeting the whole group.
Extra hens also means extra warmth for the icy winter months, Tsui said, and will enable the families to collect more eggs.
With the extra hens comes the need for more room, and now each hen will have to have three metres of coop space per animal, and will require one nesting box for every three fowl.
Coops will also now be allowed tin the side of a yard, if minimum setback requirements are met.
-with files from Kevin Ma
