I’m sitting at the first Vancouver Green Tech Forum. Mayor Gregor Robertson opened the event, and in his address he confirmed that the amendment to the Animal Control By-law has passed! This means Vancouverites can now legally keep chickens in their backyard. I don’t have all the details, but I believe that there is a limit to 2 hens (I could be wrong about this!).
Photo credit: The Green Life
There are lots of North American cities that allow city chickens, and there are many benefits. So you’ve got a backyard, and want some urban hens of your own? I just collected a few resources that I thought I would share with you.
A friend of mine also just started a Facebook Group that you may want to check out. Chickens in Vancouver will become a place for dialogue on keeping hens in urban Vancouver.
Gregor also mentioned the fact that City Hall lawn will be ripped up the Spring to make way for a new community garden! How exciting! This is just the sort of leadership and initiative I’ve wanted to see come out of City Hall. The new garden will be built in partnership with Society Promoting Environmental Conservation (SPEC) – a long standing organization in Vancouver that has done amazing work to make our city greener.
Congratulations on the urban chickens win in Vancouver. Thrilled to see another urban chicken-friendly city on the map.
Thanks for the link to urbanchickens.net, and I’d recommend Backyard Chickens (http://backyardchickens.com) as another great resource for all things concerning hens in the backyard.
The council voted to allow chickens (Yay!), but the new bylaws have not been written yet, so we don’t yet know how many, or what species, will be legal, and we don’t know what the restrictions will be. I’m sure the number won’t be less than two, and I would think that two hen chickens of any breed would be acceptable. So, we won, but we don’t know the rules yet! We are all working with the city staff to craft the best bylaw for all citizens and chickens involved.
Heather Havens
Great point! Thank-you for clarification!