Fowl run afoul of law: Resident launches petition to lift ban on chickens

Andrew Bard has run afoul of Cape Girardeau law. An animal-control officer recently notified him his chickens must go.

City ordinance prohibits Cape Girardeau residents from keeping chickens on their property.

Bard thinks the law needs to be changed. A limited number of chickens should be allowed, he said.

"There is no smell, no noise, no nuisance," he said of his chickens.

He wants the Cape Girardeau City Council to adopt a measure patterned after a law in Columbia, Missouri, which allows residents to keep up to six chickens per lot but bans roosters and mandates requirements about chicken coops and sanitation.

Andrew Bard's chickens roam around in their coop Friday in Cape Girardeau. Andrew Bard is petitioning to change the city ordinance that doesn't allow any resident of within the city to have chickens on their property to have up to six female chickens at maximum.ANDREW J. WHITAKER

Bard said he has collected about 350 signatures on a petition, most of them online through the change.org website.

Bard said he also has carried around paper petitions, seeking signatures from residents. About 80 people have signed paper petitions, and he plans to keep gathering names over the next several weeks.

He said he hopes to present his petitions to the city council next month.

Bard said he spoke to deputy city manager Molly Hood about the petition effort. Hood said city staff have notified council members about Bard's petition.

Bard, who lives at 230 Bellevue St. in a brick home built in the late 1800s, began keeping chickens in his yard in July. At one time, he had six Rhode Island red chickens. He now has three. A raccoon killed the other three, he said.

Andrew Bard holds one of his chickens in his backyard Friday in Cape Girardeau.ANDREW J. WHITAKER

Bard said he spoke to his neighbors before deciding to keep chickens in a fenced area in his yard, complete with a chicken coop. He said his neighbors were supportive. He said they appreciate the eggs he gives them.

When he had six hens, they produced as many as 150 eggs a month, Bard said.

"They are awesome," he said while feeding blueberries to his three remaining chickens.

Now that he has been cited, Bard said he will have to relocate his three hens before the end of the month. He plans to take them to a friend's farm near Oak Ridge.

But Bard said he still wants the law changed so he can return to keeping chickens in his yard.

In his online petition, Bard wrote that "raising chickens can be beneficial to the property owner and the surrounding neighbors. Chickens not only produce fresh, healthy eggs, but they also eat insects and other pests."

He added, "It is time to find a middle ground between those that want nothing and those that want everything."

Jackson and Scott City allow their residents to keep chickens.

Jackson allows residents to keep a maximum of five chickens, and roosters are allowed.

But Janet Sanders, Jackson building and planning superintendent, said owners of roosters could face nuisance citations if there is a noise problem.

"We haven't had a lot of problems," Sanders said of chickens being kept within city limits. "We have had a few people complain."

In addition to limiting the number of fowl, Jackson requires chicken coops and pens to be kept at least 25 feet away from any dwelling, church, school or business and be kept "clean and sanitary at all times."

Scott City allows residents to keep a maximum of three chickens as long as they are more than 150 feet from any neighboring residence or the neighbors have agreed in writing to a lesser distance.

Bard said he believes a six-chicken limit like that allowed in Columbia would work best.

Six years ago, the city council initially voted for and later scrapped a proposal to allow residents to keep chickens. That measure would have allowed up to 10 hens to be kept on a single property.

Some council members said at the time they had received negative comments about the measure.

Bard said he believes the time is right to remove a total ban on chickens.

"I think now is the right time to strike, because urban farming is so big," he said.

Bard, who has a large garden, said he enjoys urban farming.

His neighborhood is home to a large number of ladybugs and Japanese beetles. His chickens eat those bugs, helping the neighborhood, he said.

Neighbor Stacey Peters, who lives across the street, said Bard's chickens have not been a nuisance.

"You never hear them," said Peters, who is helping to collect signatures on Bard's petition.

Mayor Harry Rediger said the issue could be discussed by the council if and when a petition is presented. No set number of signatures is needed for the council to consider the request.

He said he doesn't know how other council members would view the issue. But Rediger said he is not in favor of allowing residents to own chickens.

"I am not interested in doing anything about chickens," he said.

Rediger said allowing residents to keep chickens within city limits could become a nuisance, "and then we would have an enforcement issue."

But Bard said he already has spoken to a couple council members and hopes to persuade a majority of them to allow him and other interested residents to keep chickens in their yards.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641

Pertinent address:

230 Bellevue, Cape Girardeau, Mo.