With last week’s launch of the Cochrane chapter of the Canadian Liberated Urban Chicken Klub (CLUCK), fans of tending the domestic fowl within city limits are flocking together.
Cochranites Jennifer Walden and Shawna Kerr-Smith are putting together a presentation for the Nov. 28 council session, hoping to put the wheels in motion for a draft hen pilot project.
“At this point, we are asking for council to approve – in theory – a hen pilot project,” said Walden.
Kerr-Smith added that proponents for the cause are hopeful the town would look to similar hen pilot projects in communities such as Okotoks, Black Diamond and High River.
Black Diamond’s 2015 urban hen bylaw allows for up to six hens and the town reported there have been “no complaints”.
High River allows for up to three hens, as does Okotoks; both passed bylaws this year.
The women are putting together a presentation that will address common concerns such as noise, coop care and attractants (such as coyotes and foxes).
Walden said they will be suggesting a bylaw to include anywhere between 3-8 hens (three is the bare minimum hens need to be sociable); a mandatory workshop; a cap on household participants; and for the pilot project to run the course of one year.
Calgarian Paul Hughes is the founder of CLUCK and said there are 15 communities in Alberta and 150 across Canada that allow for urban hens.
While Hughes has found himself up against a wall with Calgary striking down his push for urban hens in the city twice in five years (last voted down by council in 2015), he remains firm that communities need to push forward that urban hens provide a solution to food access and food security.
“We do not have a food system that addresses the needs of its citizens,” said Hughes, also the founder of Grow Calgary – Calgary’s urban agriculture farm that grows food for the city’s vulnerable.
“We’re not leaving the planet better than the way we found it and I’m doing my best to change that.”
Anyone interested or concerned about the possibility of urban hens in Cochrane is encouraged to show up for the 6 p.m. council session.
