Backyard chiken, living legally in Pleasantville NY
Many of you know that I am working on a movie project about backyard chicken farming in suburbia. We have been filming families in Westchester County that keep chickens for a couple of weeks now. Every backyard chicken farmer we’ve met is head over heels enthusiastic about keeping chickens. That enthusiasm is contagious, I guess you could say I’ve caught the chicken bug!
This week, the chicken flick took a new turn as I visited my town hall to learn about getting a variance so that I can keep chickens in my back yard.
The workers at my town hall thought I was a strange bird indeed, they had never considered raising chickens in their yard for fresh eggs!
The current zoning in my town requires 10 acres for chickens, but only 1/2 acre is needed if you want to keep a horse. Just down the road at town next door, backyard chickens are legal. The law was grandfathered in from back in the day when everyone had chickens.
Once they got over their shock, the folks at my town hall asked me questions:
Are chickens clean? Safe? Eggs from chickens who live in your backyard are much healthier and far safer than eggs from chickens that live in cruel and dirty factory farms. 90% of all supermarket eggs are grown in facilities that house 35,000 chickens or more that never see the light of day. What your food eats is important! Factory farmed chickens eat cheap poor quality grains along with a huge amount of antibiotics. Backyard chickens eat much better and have a varied diet that includes table scraps, weeds and bugs from your yard!
What about the noise? Hens make occasional quiet clucking noises that is quite pleasant. Neighborhood dogs and lawn guys with their loud, stinky leaf blowers make far more noise than a couple of hens. Roosters are a bit noisier, but they don’t make eggs so who would want them anyway? ( PS you don’t need a rooster around for hens to lay eggs)
After meeting with the building inspector, a former 4H guy who loves the idea of chickens, I decided to forget the variance and to try to change the zoning in our town instead. I just know there are other people in my town who would like to raise chickens, I am sure I will find them in my journey.
Looks like our little Chick(en) Flick is going to become a movement as well as a movie. Stay tuned for more details!
