Backyard Chickens

Rev. Joseph Mac | Jan 30, 2025

The new chicken By-law is becoming a reality in the Addington Highlands - it is a new rule regulating a number of backyard chickens based on the size of people's property.

This new By-law concerns me and a lot of local people as we see this new by-law  as a further invasion of people's freedom. The logical question is - what is the purpose, what are we trying to address and what is the real motivation. As we start to regulate how many chickens we have, we will do the same with dogs, cats...and maybe even field mice (good luck with that) or children (please God help us) in the near future.

The Addington Highlands citizens have been enjoying their lifestyle for generations, looking after the needs of their families, neighbours and the entire community. People here are very considerate of other people's needs, very respectful and tolerant. As a result, we have many diverse talents and interests in the small community.

I have been hearing that a couple of people were complaining about the noise from the chickens.

It is the season for snowmobiles now and they are active in our area. Has anyone compared the noise of the chicken with the snowmobile? There are scientific methods to do so. If  we take this approach, snowmobiles should be banned before chickens. Since we respect the hobbies of others, we are not asking for a snowmobile ban.

After reviewing the required guidelines for the chickens coop and other things associated with raising chickens, I cannot help but  - wonder - who set them up. For example:
- each chicken should have an allowance for 1,2 sq of a coop floor - I am not aware of any min space requirements for humans in the household. Is that regulated as well?.
- Coop's height cannot exceed 2 meters - really - chickens cannot sit higher because they have an acrophobia (fear of heights)?

I have a feeling that our Council/Township is working on issues that are not broken and don't need fixing rather than concentrating on addressing real issues.

We voted for the present Council, as we believed that chosen members would work for the local people, address their needs but not change rules which worked for years.

Now the local Council dictates how many chickens we can raise. Wonder what comes next...