Images of chicks, ducks and bunnies are all over the place this Easter weekend, but some folks in Peachtree City want to share their homes with real chickens year-round.
Julee Smilley organized a “Chicks 4 Peachtree City” community meeting last Wednesday to float the idea of eventually amending local ordinances to allow a cluck-cluck here and a cluck-cluck there within the city limits.
The popularity of backyard chickens is an offshoot of community gardens, farmers markets (PTC has both) and other efforts to support local agriculture.
More people now think of chickens as pets with a purpose. They’re small, low-maintenance, naturally clean and have individual personalities just like cats and dogs. Many are quite pretty. “They are just the sweetest things,” Julee says. “I just fell in love with the little guys.” Or girls, as the case may be.
Gardeners love them for eating bugs and producing great fertilizer. Their eggs are widely touted as being fresher, healthier and cheaper than the store-bought kind from commercial factory farms.
However, government officials and some neighbors aren’t always so welcoming, which is why Julee wants to educate them.
“It’s amazing to see how misinformed people are,” she says. Her presentation (which she hopes to bring to Peachtree City’s City Council) is full of facts and figures about the low impact backyard chickens have.
The pilot program she is proposing in Peachtree City – 25 families who would raise no more than five hens (no noisy roosters) under strict guidelines – has gotten support from hundreds of Peachtree City residents who signed petitions. The small-scale project would be evaluated to see if it could be applied citywide.
Peachtree City zoning ordinances currently prohibit “the keeping of poultry” in single-family neighborhoods. But other metro Atlanta areas, including parts of Cobb County, Dunwoody, Alpharetta and Decatur, have begun allowing backyard chickens.
My friend Twila Dove, who runs the Two Doves organic farm in Fayette County with her husband, Larry, has the prettiest chickens I’ve ever seen. She supports Julee’s efforts and says keeping chickens isn’t overly difficult.
“They have to be taken care of,” she notes, with proper housing and protection from predators (mostly dogs, foxes and hawks). “If you take good care of them, they’ll be healthy.”
Chickens can live up to 10 years, and as with any animal one assumes responsibility for, acquiring them comes with the moral obligation to treat them humanely.
Is this a good idea for Peachtree City? We’ll see, but at least the ball – or I guess the egg – has started rolling.
Jill Howard Church has lived in Fayette County since 1994. Reach her at jillptcblog@aol.com.
