An egg-cellent idea

I don't know if I like my backyard anymore. Doesn't seem big enough to me.

Sure, it's huge by infill-townhuse-development-smart-growth standards but there certainly isn't enough room for, say, a flock of backyard chickens. I shunned that type of yard two years ago when I started looking for a house to buy and broke out in a cold sweat every time I saw a huge backyard that evoked images of Saturdays spent doing yard work.

Too bad, considering the debate to start keeping chickens in our yards has finally reached St. Catharines. I was wondering how long it would take locally to hatch an issue that's stirring conversation in other Canadian cities almost as much as municipal tax hikes.

The person who has cracked such conversation is the mastermind behind Niagara's Best Beer. Apparently, in addition to wanting to brew his own beer, Ian Watson wants to produce his own eggs right in his backyard, much like residents just down the QEW in Niagara Falls are able to do.

And why not? How satisfying would that be? My Oma Walter had a lifelong friend in Germany who always had a hen for eggs and companionship. Emma was its name and it would follow the woman everywhere and come when she was beckoned. Seems no different than having a dog around.

Strangely enough, while St. Catharines residents can keep chickens as an indoor pet (insert brow furrow here as you picture curling up on the couch with a chicken or having it beg as you eat dinner), the city's bird bylaw doesn't allow for backyard chicken coops. Here's the story in today's Standard for more.

But this could be a fortuitous time for Watson to pursue this issue. The final draft of an entirely brand new official plan will be presented to city council June 7. This is one progressive plan that is easy to get excited about, in part because of the provisions it includes to support urban agriculture. Ensuring community gardens are permitted in all zoning categories, offering incentives to developers who provide space for community gardens, identifying sites, including city parks, that would be ideal locations for the neighbourhood veggie patches and providing infrastructure, such as water, when feasible are all written into the plan.

Wouldn't a few chickens be the perfect addition to these urban farms?

(Image from agrimag.ca)