Allowing egg-laying fowl in residential areas?

Please note the online survey is now closed. Thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts. Your input is important to us.

Background

Regional Council is considering whether to allow households to keep and raise egg-laying fowl in residential areas for personal use only.
The original Council motion and staff report focused on chickens, but at the July 30, 2019 session, Regional Council decided to expand the scope to include other birds kept for the purpose of egg laying (ducks, geese, guinea fowl, quail and or turkeys).
This is not about farming. It is about allowing people living on residentially zoned lands, whether in the city, suburbs or rural areas, to keep a small number of domesticated birds to provide eggs for the household’s own use.
Raising birds for meat, selling birds or eggs would not be permitted.
Municipal Community Food Security initiatives and the direction of the Halifax Green Network plan support policy work on allowing egg-laying fowl in residential areas.
Any policy changes regarding allowing egg-laying fowl in residential areas must be closely coordinated with the recently approved Centre Plan and the By-law simplification program.

This proposal is limited to domesticated, egg-laying fowl.
Examples include chickens, ducks, geese, guinea fowl, quail and/or turkeys.
The types of bird, and the number of birds that would be permitted, may differ between rural, suburban and urban areas.
Males, such as roosters, would be considered only where noise is unlikely to be an issue.

Regional Council is directing public engagement in the form of a web page and online questionnaire. They are also recommending stakeholders meetings with interested groups and organizations like the Halifax Food Policy Alliance, the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture, Chicken Farmers of Nova Scotia and the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture.

Please note the online survey is now closed. Thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts. Your input is important to us.

Please note the online survey is now closed. Thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts. Your input is important to us.

Background

Regional Council is considering whether to allow households to keep and raise egg-laying fowl in residential areas for personal use only.
The original Council motion and staff report focused on chickens, but at the July 30, 2019 session, Regional Council decided to expand the scope to include other birds kept for the purpose of egg laying (ducks, geese, guinea fowl, quail and or turkeys).
This is not about farming. It is about allowing people living on residentially zoned lands, whether in the city, suburbs or rural areas, to keep a small number of domesticated birds to provide eggs for the household’s own use.
Raising birds for meat, selling birds or eggs would not be permitted.
Municipal Community Food Security initiatives and the direction of the Halifax Green Network plan support policy work on allowing egg-laying fowl in residential areas.
Any policy changes regarding allowing egg-laying fowl in residential areas must be closely coordinated with the recently approved Centre Plan and the By-law simplification program.

This proposal is limited to domesticated, egg-laying fowl.
Examples include chickens, ducks, geese, guinea fowl, quail and/or turkeys.
The types of bird, and the number of birds that would be permitted, may differ between rural, suburban and urban areas.
Males, such as roosters, would be considered only where noise is unlikely to be an issue.

Regional Council is directing public engagement in the form of a web page and online questionnaire. They are also recommending stakeholders meetings with interested groups and organizations like the Halifax Food Policy Alliance, the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture, Chicken Farmers of Nova Scotia and the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture.

Please note the online survey is now closed. Thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts. Your input is important to us.

Who's listening