Backyard Chickens Raise A Ruckus In South Frontenac

Jeff Green | Nov 23, 2022

The City of Kingston has had a chicken bylaw for the past decade. There are a set of rules that apply, but urban homeowners are able to keep chickens.

In 2018, North Frontenac passed a chicken bylaw, permitting backyard chickens on all lots that permit a single detached dwelling. The North Frontenac chicken bylaw makes it clear that backyard chickens are “excluded from the definition of a hobby farm”.

In South Frontenac, Council dealt with the matter of backyard chickens in 2010, when an amendment to the comprehensive zoning bylaw made keeping up to ten hens, (no roosters) on lots as small as one acre, within the township.

Unfortunately for a couple of chicken loving South Frontenac residents, that bylaw amendment apparently does not apply on properties that are zoned Limited Service Residential – Waterfront.

The first to find out about it was Judi Curry, who lives on Arbuckle Lane in Bedford District. She put in a self-contained chicken pen in 2021, and keeps 9 chickens in a large pen that is decorated with daycare furniture left over from her previous business.

The chickens provide eggs and companionship.

“Due to the pandemic, I missed my family and was feeling isolated. My little chickens have helped and supported me dealing with stress, loneliness and isolation. My chickens had brought me so much joy … and now eggs, which have become part of our daily nutrition,” she said in a letter to the township in the fall of 2021.

She wrote the letter because she was visited by the Frontenac Bylaw Services, who had been contacted, after a complaint was lodged with the township from a neighbouring property owner.

After the visit, she received a letter from Bylaw Services.

“Your property is zoned RLSW – Limited Service Residential – Waterfront and in this zone agricultural uses are not permitted … from the township’s perspective the above deficiency must be rectified and it is therefore requested that you remove the animals within 14 days … “ said the letter.

She contacted Alan Revill, who was a Bedford District Council member, and he managed to put the matter on hold while the township did some further research into their bylaws. Nothing happened, but a year later another complaint was filed and Frontenac Bylaw Services returned and on August 15 (2022). She received a new letter asking that the chickens be removed. She has not been fined for any infraction and there has been no follow up visit this fall.

Judi Curry contacted Alan Revill again, and again he told her to wait, and after the election the new council will look at the matter. And that is where the matter stands now, and with Revill no longer on council, she has contacted the new members of council from Bedford, Steve Pegrum and Charlene Godfrey, to look into the matter.

“The whole matter of livestock is an issue. It makes no sense for backyard chickens to be classed as livestock. Keeping chickens for eggs is no more an agricultural use than growing tomatoes in a garden. Are we going to restrict vegetable gardening in South Frontenac?” said Judi Curry.

Just last week, another South Frontenac resident, Frances Broome from Noble Lane, in a rural area within the hamlet of Battersea, received a similar letter. She also has under 10 chickens, and a neighbour has submitted a complaint, leading to her own visit and letter from Frontenac Bylaw Services.

In her case, the chickens are not even layers, they are purely companion birds.

“They are called Silkie’s, not a breed you would choose if you wanted eggs,” France Broome said. The bylaw officer said they are considered to be livestock, and keeping livestock is not permitted in my zone. But they are pets, not livestock, and that is part of the problem.”

Broome has contacted Norm Roberts and Ron Sleeth, the two Storrington Councillors.

“I’m going to recommend to council that we put a hold on this enforcement, and look into a change in the zoning sometime next year. They can keep chickens in Kingston, after all. Part of the problem comes from her being located in the Battersea Hamlet area, even though it is not in the built up part of Battersea at all,” he said.

“I grew up in Battersea, and half of the families in Battersea had chickens in their yard. I don’t know why they can’t do that now,” he added.