How to get backyard chickens legalized in Virginia's cities: one perspective

I am the founder of a grassroots network, 4 Chesapeake Hens, that successfully lobbied the Chesapeake City Council to make up to six "female chickens" legal in the backyards of all single-family residential lots, with certain restrictions.

Bernadette Barber is a Virginia Farmer who is pushing for the Virginia Food Freedom Act. This act, if passed, would allow all Virginians to sell their homemade foods and baked goods legally to others under the following conditions:

1. The sale is made face-to-face,
2. The maker's name and address is labeled on the item sold,
3. The list of ingredients is included on the label.

Right now Bernadette cannot legally make a pie with farm-fresh eggs and other ingredients grown right on her own farm and sell it to her neighbors. To do that legally would require government inspection and approval.

This makes little sense to me.

Anyway, Bernadette says her group has been getting many inquiries about backyard chickens. She asked me to write a post about how to get them legalized in cities. I agreed, so here is my advice:

1. Have a thick skin. In the course of your efforts you will hear all kinds of negative comments about what you are trying to do, about how City Council will never listen to you because you're not a rich developer, etc. If you feel you are right, keep going. If you get answers from government officials, and they don't sound right because they don't jibe with your research (see below) or don't seem well documented by facts, don't give up.

2. At the same time, listen to people. If these same people are spreading misinformation, find out what it is so you can do your research and counter it. If there are valid concerns, work on addressing them.

For example, a Virginia "depredation law" originally required Animal Control Officers who caught a dog in the act of killing a chicken to kill the dog on the spot. This concern was unsuccessfully raised by those who opposed backyard hens in Chesapeake. And it has been one of the roadblocks thrown against our sister group "4 Virginia Beach Hens" in a neighboring town. This state law was disturbing, so our group combined with the Virginia Beach group to address this law at the state level. Once it came to several humane organizations' attention, we had no difficulty in getting this law changed so that ACOs had the option to seize the dog, instead. Problem solved.

3. Do your research. Our group has the reputation in Cheseapeake of being polite and extremely well-informed. This has gone a long way with City Council.

Start with actually reading the ordinances that address keeping backyard chickens in your community. Don't just call zoning: actually get the ordinances and read them. They are often available online through Municode or you can go to your local public library for help.

Read all you can about backyard flocks. Read the CDC and USDA websites on keeping chickens and disease prevention, too. Other good resources are Chickens and You, including 7 false myths about urban chickens. Pat Foreman, a Virginia resident, wrote a book called City Chicks that has good information and a chapter about changing city ordinances. Any information you can get from government or university publications should carry extra weight and be even more useful. We also found it helpful to research when and why chickens were first banned in residential areas in Chesapeake.

Did you know that, under Virginia law, chickens under the age of eight weeks of age can only be sold in flocks of six or more? This is a good example of doing your research before heading to council. A neighboring municipality only allows four birds, for example. Its residents are often frustrated when they stop at a farm supply store for chicks in the spring and are told they may only buy six or more. Research leads to better planning in advance to hopefully avoid these kinds of situations.

4. Network, reminding your supporters to be polite and well-informed every step of the way. Find ways of using your volunteers' strengths: whatever they are willing to give time and commitment to. Get them working together. Use online social networks, Change.org, etc., but don't discount the importance of face-to-face time. Those willling to take the time to meet in person will mostly be the backbone of your movement. Also reach out to those contacts within city government who are sympathetic to your cause, willing to listen, and willing to work with you. They will be crucial. It is especially helpful to find those in the mayor's office or on city council who will support your efforts. Here in Chesapeake we were lucky to have the support of Councilman Robert Ike early on in the process.

Part of networking is linking up with groups in your area that might already be working on legalizing or keeping or educating about chickens. In Southeastern Virginia there's Backyard Hens for Norfolk, 4 Virginia Beach Hens, Hampton Roads Hens, Portsmouth Hen Keepers, and Peninsula CHicken Keepers, to name the most popular and active groups other than 4 Chesapeake Hens. There are active groups in Richmond and in Fredericksburg, too.

Another networking idea is to be willing to attend local educational events for public outreach. Bring some hens with you if you can for the public to meet first-hand. While you're at it, remember to network with other "chicken groups," especially in your region and across your state. If a neighboring community with legal chickens is having a backyard "coop tour," invite your local decision-makers to attend. Give them sufficient notice. Hopefully they will attend so they can see for themselves how little noise, fuss, or odor backyard hens make.

5. Use the media to your advantage. Our group has used blogging, Facebook,  XtraNormal, Youtube, news releases, letters to the editor, Craigslist, and Twitter to advantage.  This has gotten positive exposure --free publicity!-- in our local and regional newspaper and local television station(s). Those who contact or talk to the media should always be aware that reporters may have biases. Talk to them anyway, but be cautious about what you say. Prepare some talking points in advance if time allows. Eventually you will know which reporters you can trust and which ones you cannot. Obviously, work with those who have a track record of being open-minded and fair (supportive is even better when you can get it).

6. Be prepared to appear as a cohesive, unified group in front of City Council on a regular basis. Get yourself on the agenda if you can. If not, most communities have regular times where open meetings or non-agenda items are scheduled for public input. Take advantage of these, but make sure a variety of speakers talk on various occasions on a variety of related topics. Have two or three speakers cover the evening's talking points, then invite the rest of the audience to stand at one point to show support. Get everyone in the group to wear the same color for the event. Group T-shirts or even stickers make a visual impact.

Research the rules for getting in front of council in advance. If your speakers must sign up in advance, do that. If only three minutes are allowed per speaker, be sure every speaker knows that and has actually timed the intended speech. Saad Ringa, a member of our group, has collected many of these speeches on his Youtube Channel for those who want to watch some sample speeches.

When you attend meetings, bring any supporting documents you want to submit, assuming your council allows them, and bring extra copies of these plus your written speeches to give to any reporters who show interest. Be sure they have the contact information of your group's leadership. Publish the speeches online through Google Drive and share them publicly.

If your item actually comes up on the agenda, find out how far in advance to submit any documentation you want council to consider and give them out within that time frame. Here in Chesapeake we were told two weeks in advance was good lead time, so that's what we did.

Another idea that worked for us was to have a "City Council Member of the Week" whose contact information we posted online. As a group, we all contacted that one council member with our talking points. We then moved on to another council member the following week.

Contact can be positive rather than confrontational. One time our group gave free samples of fresh, local eggs for Council Members' consideration. Another time we wrote them all thank-you notes just prior to Thanksgiving. Sometimes you can catch more flies with honey, as the saying goes.

If you need to make Freedom of Information Act requests to get information you need from city government to make your case, put in your requests, but realize these take time and sometimes significant money.

7. Keep at it. One of the biggest differences between "4 Chesapeake Hens" and similar efforts by individuals and community groups before us is that prior speakers took the city's initial "no" as a final answer. We never gave up. We never had to make backyard hens an election issue, but our group was prepared to do that if necessary. Any public official who says he or she supports the environment or individual property rights but is against backyard hens is not "walking the talk" and needs to be held accountable at election time.

If this seems exhausting and time-consuming, nevertheless this is probably what it will take to get change made. Our group had it easier than many other localities. We faced opposition but we were polite, well-informed, persistent, organized, and lucky.

As my husband and I shut our laying hens into their hen house at night, as we listen to their gentle and contented cooing when they lull themselves to sleep, or as we eat the best, freshest eggs we have ever tasted, we find these efforts completely worthwhile. So have many others who helped us: some of our original supporters have found the educational side of our efforts so rewarding that they went on to start Hampton Roads Hens, a group that continues advocacy, education, and outreach on a regional level. We all wish you the best of luck with your own efforts at chicken activism. If we can do anything further to help you, please let us know.

Dogs vs. Chickens in Chesapeake? A Rational Answer...

Catherine M. White on April 28, 2013, stated on the Pilot Online: "There is a VA state law that states that any dog who chases a chicken must be put to death. Does that mean that their dog that killed one of their chickens should be put to death? We can't pick & choose the areas of the law that we like." Mrs. White has been posting similar posts on other media-related websites. Forgive me for paraphrasing "Chicken Little," but her theme from these and other comments seems to be that if Chesapeake's City Council does not rescind a new ordinance allowing up to six laying hens on single-family residential lots, the sky will somehow fall.

But is any there truth to what Mrs. White is claiming? The issue has certainly been in the news, particularly in regard to efforts by Virginia Beach residents to get backyard hens legalized there. The law has come up both on television and in the newspaper.

I am the founder and one of the leaders of 4 Chesapeake Hens, the community group that has convinced Chesapeake City Council to allow up to six "female chickens" in single-family residential backyards with certain restrictions. Here is my response to Mrs. White's post, posted Thursday, May 2:

"Most urban chicken keepers also love other animals. Many of us keep dogs. There are leash laws and chickens must be kept in a pen on the owners' own property.


"There is some wording in the Virginia State codes that it is a 'duty' of animal control or other officers to kill a dog that they catch *in the act of* killing livestock or poultry. The same law allows the owners of the livestock to kill the dog if they catch it in the act on their property. The intent of the law is to protect the rights of farmers in agricultural areas. The livestock are, after all, farmers' livelihood. Unless the dog is caught in the act, the 'duty' clause does not apply. There are similar laws in other states in other areas of the country.
Despite that, our group has not been able to find a single instance in Virginia or anywhere else in the country where a dog has been killed by an officer of the law or by a property owner because it was attacking an urban micro-flock. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the discharge of firearms is illegal in residential areas, perhaps due to the use of fences and to leash laws, or perhaps due to plain old common sense on the part of officers and of people in general."

Readers may actually scrutinize the wording of the state law for themselves by clicking here. It is clear that, except for dogs caught in the actual act of killing the livestock or poultry, there is plenty of opportunity for careful investigation and for protecting dogs through the courts. A dog is not a confirmed poultry killer until its third act of killing poultry. Even then, the owner can save the dog's life by moving it out of state. 4 Virginia Beach Hens believes the concerns about dogs' lives is an excuse or a stalling tactic by their City Council, and we suspect they might be right. Despite this, the law does cause some concern among animal control officers who have contacted us, and it has been a real roadblock to chickens in Virginia Beach. Our group intends to address this law at the state level to try to amend the language to accommodate the needs of both urban and rural flock-keepers. In the meantime, we ask the public to keep concerns about danger to dogs in perspective.

Update: On November 26, 2013, Chesapeake City Council voted to make the "hen ordinance" permanent. The meeting may be viewed online:  fast forward to 1:19 to see some great pro-chicken speeches and the City Council's reaction.

Update: in February of 2014 the Virginia legislature voted to amend this law to allow Animal Control Officers the option to seize the predatory dog instead of killing it outright. The amendment had broad support.

When and Why Were Chickens Banned in Chesapeake? An Answer at Last!

4 Chesapeake Hens is a grass-roots organization that is trying to get micro-flocks of laying hens legalized in all residential areas of Chesapeake, VA. Currently the law only allows chickens on land zoned agricultural and on RE-1 "residential estates" of three acres or more. There, up to four hens (no roosters) may be kept in a pen. Up until yesterday, I have been unable to get factual information from the City regarding exactly when and why chickens were banned (see this previous post).

A member of City Council, Debbie Ritter, finally suggested I contact Dolores A. Moore, our City Clerk, with a request for more research on this topic. Yesterday I received an email that contained copies of minutes from both the Planning Commission and from the City Council where chickens were mentioned. These minutes date back to April 12, 1966, which is even before zoning was legally adopted in Chesapeake. Even then, there is a suggestion that the City preserve tracts of "two or three acres of land" for residents who desire to keep "ponies and chickens."

However, chickens and other poultry were allowed in the residential areas of Chesapeake up until June 17, 1975, when Council voted to allow "livestock, poultry, and other animals not commonly kept as pets" only in the A-1, RE-1, and (now defunct) C-1 Districts. The ordinance went into effect thirty days after its adoption. But even then the minutes make clear that it was the intention of the City to continue to allow residents who already had livestock to continue to do so under a "non-conforming use" unless the residents had stopped for one year, at which point they would not be allowed to begin again.

The only record of any objection to the new law was made by a Mr. Joseph T. Hall of 1385 Elbow Road at the Planning Commission meeting on May 19, 1975, which recommended the adoption of this ordinance. Mr. Hall owned a property zoned R-15s in the South Norfolk borough of Chesapeake, and he had tenants there who kept chickens. When informed that the ordinance "would prohibit the future keeping of animals not commonly classed as household pets on the property," Hall objected to the ordinance.

This ordinance must have generated some confusion or potential confusion about what constituted livestock, because on February 15, 2005, City Council Member Ritter made a motion to approve TA-Z-04-09, an ordinance "to clarify that rabbits, fish, and other animals can be kept as pets under certain circumstances." Council Members Burkhimer, Hayes, Krasnoff, de Triquet, Edge, Newman, Parker, Ritter, and Willis unanimously voted for the measure. Up to ten rabbits were allowed as pets under the ordinance, but domestic fowl were still prohibited.

These minutes answer the questions of when hens were prohibited, but not the question of why. Was the problem increased urban density, as Zoning Administrator John King once told me? Was it due to the mythical problems that chickens presumably cause? Or was there any evidence back in 1975 for the types of potential problems outlined in the Staff Report that 4 Chesapeake Hens has thoroughly rebutted?

To answer that question, I searched through old microfilms of newspapers from June of 1975. A few hours' search turned up an article from the Ledger-Star, dated Thursday, June 19, 1975.  I will quote from this article, "New Law Prohibits Farm Animals in City," below:

"The new regulation is based on a request by the council in January and generated from a claim for the city to pay the value of ducks killed in a residential zone.

"The claim was based on state law requiring cities and counties to reimburse residents when their livestock is fatally wounded by wild dogs.

"In the past several months, as more and more residents have asked for reimbursement from the city, the council has grown increasingly skeptical of their requests.

"When a Martin Avenue man asked for $93 to compensate for 19 ducks killed by stray dogs, Councilman J. Bennie Jennings Jr. noted the man lived in a district zoned for single-family homes on small lots. The Martin Avenue man received $53.30 for the loss of his ducks but the council voted to refer the question of proper zoning for livestock and poultry breeding to the Planning Commission. The city's planners recommended that farm animals be limited to three zoning districts. 

"Planning Department Director Milton Perry told the council the new ordinance would not apply to bonafide farms in areas subsequently zoned for residential use. 

"Also, the law would not affect persons in resmdential (sic) zones who currently maintain limited numbers of farm animals for their own use. Such situations would be classified as non-conforming uses and so long as such residents did not discontinue keeping farm animals for as much as two years they could keep their poultry and livestock."

With subsequent changes that have been made in state and local laws, the potential for residents with poultry to run the City's coffers dry with spurious livestock claims has been prevented, as explained in 4 Chesapeake Hens' "Further Information" document, pp. 9-11. And it is clear that the original intent of the law was to limit "poultry breeding," not the keeping of a few chickens for household use. Therefore there is no reason that the current Council cannot undo the unnecessary restrictions that have been imposed upon Chesapeake's residents over the years as an unintended consequence of this law. Flocks of up to six laying hens, kept in pens, should be allowed in all single-family residences, for all the reasons explained on this website and elsewhere.

If you  agree with us, be sure to arrive at the City Council meeting this Tuesday, November 20, at 6:30 PM at City Hall on Cedar Rd. Come dressed in red and sit with us. If you desire to speak, you must sign up to speak BEFORE the meeting begins, however. Remarks are limited to five minutes and may be cut to three depending on the number of people speaking. Let City Council know you support TA-Z-12-07 with changes to allow the keeping of up to six hens and the removal of the privacy fencing requirement.

**Update: On November 20, 2012, Councilman Robert Ike made a motion to allow up to six hens, in a pen, on residential properties on single-family lots. The motion carried, 6-3.