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District of North Van pecks away at bylaw to allow henhouses

District of North Vancouver council appears to be almost done balking at backyard chickens. Council voted Nov.
backyard chickens

District of North Vancouver council appears to be almost done balking at backyard chickens.

Council voted Nov. 21 to direct staff to begin drawing up bylaws that would allow single-family homeowners to practise poultry husbandry – if they can comply with a lengthy list of rules.

The district is the last of the North Shore’s three municipalities to allow for backyard hens after years of lobbying from the Canadian Liberated Urban Chicken Klub, or CLUCK.

Under the proposed rules, homeowners may keep up to six hens (no roosters) in rodent- and predator-proof backyard enclosures that meet a minimum specified size and maximum height. The chickens may not be slaughtered and their eggs may not be sold.

With the rules plus education and enforcement in place, most of council was persuaded the Gallus gallus domesticus would be a net positive, engendering a closer connection between residents and their food source.

Before throwing their support behind the bylaw, many of the lifelong North Vancouverites on council recalled when backyard agriculture was common when they were growing up.

The only holdout was Coun. Roger Bassam who said the nostalgia was misplaced.

“You know what else we also did back then? We shot the bears when they came down and we shot all the pests and vermin because that’s how we dealt with things. We don’t do that anymore.”

The costs don’t outweigh the benefits, Bassam added.

The North Shore Black Bear Society has endorsed the plan.

The public will still be consulted on the rules before council’s final vote on the matter.

If council approves the new chicken bylaw, it could be in effect for spring 2017.