Hub Staff

If approved at an upcoming Saugeen Shores Council meeting a two-year pilot program could see urban chickens in some Saugeen Shores backyards. The food sustainability project which was previously discussed in October of 2016 had councillors ask staff to create a report and by-law regulating the use of urban chickens in backyard areas. The report made its way to the March 20 Planning Meeting.

Proposed restrictions in the report included no more than five chickens, to which committee members later suggested up to three, at any stage of life (excluding eggs). The report also suggested no roosters be allowed, odour and noise management be implemented as well as no sale of eggs or slaughter of chickens be permitted.

Other requirements included:

- chickens must be located in the rear yard only and on single, detached home properties which are zoned either R1 or R2


- cannot be located on vacant land or lands where more than one dwelling unit exists 


- coop and runs must be set back a minimum of 1.5 metres from side and rear lot lines 
and a minimum of 5 metres from a dwelling unit, except the dwelling unit on which the chickens are to be located 


- coop maintenance and construction standards


- identification of chicken owners 


- rodent and predator maintenance

Another suggested requirement was that the minimum lot area be 1,000 square metres but the committee thought that might be too restrictive.

In October 2016, Councillor John Rich put the urban poultry idea on Council’s agenda and said at the time that he hadn’t seen so many smiles around the Council table before. In the March 24 edition of the Town of Saugeen Shores podcast The Shore Report, Councillor Rich said it was a fun by-law to talk about.

“I think we’ve taken the public’s views into consideration and I think we’ve created a program that’s relatively safe at this point to go through the trial period,” said Rich on the Podcast.

He stated that at 1,000 square metres required lot size, only 33 percent of the Saugeen Shores population will meet the standard for backyard poultry and that this would in no way impact egg sellers in the region.

“This is going to be a small by-law that will allow a handful of houses to raise chickens in the backyard,” said Rich.