If one Owen Sound Councillor gets his way, chickens could soon be coming to local homes to roost.
David Adair wants the city to change its bylaw to allow families to keep chickens in their back yard if they so desire.
He says urban chicken raising is as natural as having a back yard garden and would allow city dwellers to have some control over their food.
Adair says several other cities in Ontario allow residents to raise a few chickens in their back yards and he wants to see council at least hold a discussion about the merits of urban chicken raising.
He says if such a bylaw change was made there would be strict rules to follow such as the minimum lot size for chicken raising, a limit to the number of birds that can be kept in a back yard, the distance the chicken coop would have to be from nearby lots and of course a total ban on roosters.
Adair says roosters are noisy and are not needed as far as laying hens are concerned.
As for concerns about avian flu, Adair says that is the result of massive factory farming operations, not small neighbourhood chicken flocks of three or four birds.
He says under the current by law people have have pigeon coops with an unlimited number of birds and also rabbits, so why not chickens.
Adair says he hopes to bring this issue before Council as some future date.