Cock-a-doodle-don't: Permit won't _¶y well with chicken owners

The Chapel Hill Town Council should lower the cost of a proposed permit that would be required of some residents who raise chickens in their yards.

The proposed amendment would require residents with coops larger than 12 feet by 12 feet to pay more than $200 for a permit. Any smaller enclosure warrants no such fine.

Making residents who raise chickens obtain a permit is understandable. It makes sense for the town to know exactly where chickens are being raised.

To ensure public health and that chickens are raised humanely it is appropriate to require a permit of residents who keep chickens.

But the cost of that permit is far too high.

At last week's Town Council meeting council member Ed Harrison said the proposed permit cost is two to three times more than Durham's permit cost.

Requiring Chapel Hill chicken owners to pay that much money for a permit discourages residents from raising chickens which would be inconsistent with the town's commitment to sustainability.

Raising their own chickens is a way for residents to ensure that their meat and eggs are coming from reliable healthy sources. It allows them to feel confident in the fact that their food was raised humanely.

And although raising chickens can be an affordable way to eat it isn't always cheap from the get-go.

Backyard chickens must be fed and kept too.

Chicken feed and other necessary expenses are already a financial burden to residents who raise chickens and this permit would only augment those costs.

Parts of the amendment do make sense. It caps residential chicken ownership at 10 chickens and it prohibits residents from keeping chickens in their front yards.

But this amendment could deter residents from raising their own chickens.

And Chapel Hill shouldn't encourage any sustainable producers to fly the coop.