Chicken Owners Squawk at Proposed Ordinance

Local chicken farmers who have been brooding about the effect of a proposed township ordinance will soon have some guidelines following Monday morning.

The meeting stemmed from a discussion about a new zoning ordinance regulating the raising of chickens in West Bloomfield, on May 2. Residents and board members expressed concerns that chickens would spread disease, create noise, and cause an increase in predators such as coyotes.

Mary Fox has 15 chickens as part of the suburban agriculture business she runs from her home in the Westacres subdivision, which . Fox maintains that chickens do not make noise or attract predators.

Irene Scheel, proprietor of , agreed that residents should not be concerned about noise or disease.

“Chickens are the most relaxing animals you can have around,” Scheel said Sunday, “and we get more diseases from coyotes than we do from chickens.”

Scheel’s 1.5-acre lot is currently home to about 68 chickens, which she keeps secured in enclosed coops where visitors are not allowed. Most of the chickens live in a white brick structure equipped with all the comforts of home, including water and a furnace to keep the animals warm during the winter months. Because some are brooders rather than egg layers, the chickens produce about 36 eggs a day.

Scheel and Fox met while shopping at Whole Foods market and discovered they had chicken farming in common.

“I told Mary there were two rules: be good to your neighbors and don’t have a rooster,” Scheel said.

She said it is roosters rather than chickens that make noise, although her current neighbors have no complaints about her resident rooster, Charlie. When a new neighbor moves in, Scheel brings a basket of 52 eggs to smooth the transition.

“They say they don’t hear anything,” said Scheel, adding that chickens help keep insects and snakes away.

Among the other requirements approved by the committee:

• A maximum of four hens over the age of one month may be kept per parcel of land or per acre. Roosters are prohibited. Those with between 1.99-4.99 acres may keep a maximum of eight hens. A parcel with more than five acres is considered farmland and owners may keep as many chickens as they like under current guidelines. Senior Planner Sara Roediger added that this provision was made in part to satisfy those who have already come before the board having owned more than four hens.
• Slaughtering chickens on the premises is prohibited.
• Coops must meet standards already used by accessory buildings such as sheds and garages, including that they be located at least 10 feet away from any property line in the rear. The coops must also meet current side-yard setback standards, which, depending on the district in which the owner lives, is either eight feet, 10 feet or 12.5 feet away from the property line.
• The coops must be built with materials customarily used in the construction of those accessory buildings, which, Roediger said, was a provision made to ensure that the coops be aesthetically pleasing to neighbors.

According to Roediger, the need for an ordinance arose after the two cases were brought before the Zoning Board of Appeals. Current township regulations allow only animals classified as domestic pets, such as dogs and cats.

“We felt we should develop an ordinance that applies to the entire township instead of deciding each case individually,” said Roediger.

The draft of the new ordinance will be presented to the on May 24 for approval. Following a public hearing, a recommendation will be made to the , who will vote on whether to adopt the new regulations.

Scheel's farm would be exempt because it predates township zoning regulations, but other residents will be required to comply with the new regulations, according to Roediger, who added that existing subdivision bylaws will supercede any new ordinance.

“It will be like the policy regarding fences,” she said. “Fences are allowed by the township unless they’re prohibited by the subdivision.”

Scheel thinks limiting the number of chickens to four per acre is too restrictive.

“Four chickens isn’t very many,” she said.

Fox said she hopes the proposed guidelines will be revised to allow for more chickens per resident.

"I need to keep my 15 chickens," she said. "I have a business."