The Town of Tecumseh is considering an urban chicken test run.
An interim by-law is expected to come before council in September which would allow residents in the town to keep up to 12 chickens in their backyard.
The interim by-law could allow backyard chickens — also known as urban chickens — for up to 24 months.
Councillor Bill Altenhof says the by-law needs to have a number of considerations. "Kind of compare coupe size, versus lot size, versus the number of chickens so, I think we just can't look at the size of the lot, I think that alone is not appropriate as well as its location," says Altenhof.
Council had previously allowed a maximum of three urban chickens as a permitted use but amended its animal control by-law in November 2016 to ban keeping chickens in urban areas of the town.
Councillor Rita Ossington says urban chickens is becoming a popular trend across North America. "People who raise urban chickens are doing it for health reasons or because there is a health reason, but they're doing it for good health reasons" she says.
A number of other municipalities in Ontario have allowed the keeping of urban chickens including Kingston, Kitchener and Innisfil.
"Raising chickens can mean shorter trip for food," says Ossington. "It's like so many of us have our own backyard gardens now, we're protecting our own food sources."