Greening Austin Daily

Backyard Chicken Envy

15th March, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments

I’ve always wanted backyard chickens for the fresh eggs, but according to this Statesman article, while Austin currently allows an unlimited number of roosters and chickens per household, city officials may be considering a change.  I think the irritation of neighbors  dealing with multiple roosters crowing next door at all hours is understandable – but hopefully the rules won’t change so drastically that roosters AND chickens will be banned from backyards.

The article notes that “[a]dvocates say chickens should be raised locally, as opposed to in industrial poultry operations criticized by animal rights activists.” City officials have stated that the city already prohibits pets that disturb neighbors and neighbors are free to report noisy roosters to the police, but that “[t]he police always have a quandary in a city where serious crime and even murders take place…They have to be judicious about how much attention is paid to things like quality-of-life issues.” The Statesman article notes that city council will probably consider the matter this Spring.