Backyard chicken debate heats up in metro Detroit: What to know

Christina Hall | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Interest in backyard chickens is on the rise again in metro Detroit Courtney Wooten raises two Plymouth Barred Rock chickens at her home in Berkley on Monday, Nov. 12, 2018.

Many of Detroit's suburbs are talking turkey — about chickens.

Interest in backyard chickens is on the rise again in metro Detroit, with several urban communities, such as Huntington Woods, discussing the idea, and others either passing ordinances to allow chickens, such as Warren, or expanding the number of hens one can have from three to six, such as Ferndale.

While some officials and residents — concerned about smell, rats, noise, dirtiness and disease — may cry foul, those who have chickens say fowl are just fine.

“(The idea) has ballooned in a massive, very real way,” said Laura Mikulski, a backyard chicken owner for many years in Ferndale, where she said nearly two dozen residents legally have chickens.

“There’s a pet benefit. Animals enjoy being around you. My dog is very fun and social, (but) she’s not making eggs, she’s not helping to build the soil, she’s more effort than chickens that want to be outside,” said Mikulski, administrator of the Ferndale Backyard Chickens Facebook page and website. “They don’t cost that much. When people see that, they start to understand there’s a real benefit there. They end up being pets.”

In Hazel Park, which has allowed chickens for more than half a century, City Council member Alissa Sullivan said the city has never had a complaint regarding chickens.

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She has a 5-pound chicken named Wren that lives inside her house and is one of about 10 residents who have registered with the city to have hens.

Wren was rescued from southwest Detroit and was supposed to live outside in a coop at Sullivan’s home, but she determined that would not be a wise idea because Wren previously lost some of her toes from frostbite.

Wren has lived with Sullivan for about four years, laying about five eggs a week, but Sullivan said she has never heard her hen make a noise while laying an egg. Wren occasionally made a soft clucking sound in the background as a Free Press reporter talked with Sullivan by phone.

Wren eats Sullivan’s table scraps and even visited the Huntington Woods council meeting in a cat carrier when 12-year-old Georgia Stoy asked the council to consider allowing backyard chickens in that city last month.

Stoy, a seventh-grader who pitched the idea with a PowerPoint presentation, told council that chickens have several benefits. Among them: They lay eggs that can be shared with neighbors; they provide pest control (they eat bugs and other creatures); they help humans have less waste (they eat table scraps); they're entertaining, and they're fun to cuddle.

Stoy told council that hens only make noise when being attacked, are in danger, or are laying an egg — a process that may last seconds with very minimal noise. Mikulski said hens also may grumble when in henapause, or — chicken owners say — when a hen's egg production slows or stops because of age.

"I bet that's a lot less than your neighbor's dog," Stoy said of noise from chickens, later adding: "Please change the law so Huntington Woods, too, can benefit from backyard chickens."

Huntington Woods City Manager Amy Sullivan said she is researching the matter per council’s request.

Three dozen communities allow chickens or fowl, with Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti having specific chicken ordinances, according to www.ferndalechickens.com.

Some communities allow them with restrictions or in specifically zoned areas, require permits or have limitations on the number of permits or hens, depending on how the community's ordinance is written.

Roosters are not allowed in most backyard chicken ordinances, Mikulski said. Communities also vary on the cost to register or permit hens and the number of coop inspections per year.

Nearly two dozen other cities, including Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Detroit, Grosse Pointe, and Fraser, do not allow chickens or fowl, according to www.ferndalechickens.com.

Courtney Wooten of Berkley is probably one of the few residents who has moved her hens — from Lathrup Village to Berkley, which took up the backyard chicken idea in a pilot program and this summer approved allowing them in the community.

Five permits are available, with Wooten saying she is one of three permit holders for her hand-raised, nearly 4-year-old hens.

“There’s a grassroots effort for people to be in charge of their food,” Wooten said.

So why would people want to spend the money — hundreds or even thousands of dollars for the coop, the biggest expense — to have backyard chickens?

“The eggs, of course!” said Linda Kaluza of Warren, who has had chickens for a decade — at one time having nearly a dozen hens at her home in a coop that she and her husband built, complete with a solar panel.

She sold the eggs to her neighbor, with the neighbor putting money in her mailbox and Kaluza putting in eggs in her neighbor's door.

Kaluza's last hen died about a month or so ago, but she plans to get new hens when she returns from an upcoming naval deployment. She's happy to pay the city's $10 registration fee in a new ordinance that allows Warren residents to have up to three hens.

"I'm working on them to get goats next. Why not?" Kaluza said. "They're easier. They're easier than dogs. I told them to get ready for that. Milk and eggs."

For Mikulski, she wanted chickens for their waste for compost and soil building for her gardens.

She said while rats are usually the biggest concern from some residents and community officials contemplating whether to allow chickens, they aren't a problem — especially if the coop is constructed and maintained properly and chicken feed is stored in rat-proof bins, such as metal containers.

In contrast, rats — specifically, the effort by people to get rid of them — could cause problems for chickens. One woman posted on a Ferndale forum Facebook page at the end of October that her beloved chicken died, believed to be killed by ingesting poison left out for rats.

Wooten said she had lots of reasons to get chickens. She wanted a nice hobby to share with her younger children; she wanted to teach them where their food comes from, and they just make nice pets.

Hens or baby chicks can be bought online or through farm supply stores in the spring. Their cost can be just a few dollars and chicken feed, too, is relatively inexpensive and can last several months.

"I got them for the soil building and now I would never go without," Mikulski said of her hens. "Their personalities, antics are the biggest selling point."

Kaluza agreed.

"They call it chicken TV," she said. "Get a lawn chair and lemonade and sit next to the coop, you'd be surprised at how fast the time goes."

More: Detroit eyes adding livestock to urban farms

Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter.

Communities that allow chickens and fowl:

Addison Township

Allen Park

Ann Arbor

Auburn Hills

Berkley

Canton

Center Line

Clawson

Dearborn

East Lansing

Eastpointe

Farmington Hills

Ferndale

Georgetown Township

Grand Rapids

Hazel Park

Holly Township

Holly

Lansing

Lathrup Village

Livonia

Madison Heights

Mundy Charter Township

Muskegon Charter Township

Northville

Norton Shores

Pontiac

Rochester Hills

Roseville

Royal Oak

Southfield

Troy

Warren

West Bloomfield

Ypsilanti

Go to ferndalechickens.com for specifics on restrictions and ordinances.