West Side activist stows chickens in secret location, pleads with city to make them legal

West Side activist stows chickens in secret location, pleads with city to make them legal

Chickens on the lam

Monique Watts decided to get chickens for her Buffalo backyard when she ate fresh eggs at a friend’s home in New Mexico. “The mental factor of sitting among chickens is amazing,” she says. “It brings you into a completely different world of sound and movement and texture.” Last July, she bought five hens and custom-built a coop for them in her West Side backyard, but not before doing a lot of research. She looked up city law, found it was legal, and went ahead with her plans. But what she had found online was an outdated document. Due to an amendment in 2004, it’s unlawful to have fowl in Buffalo.

Last Saturday, an animal control officer knocked on her door, prompted by an anonymous 911 call. He gave her 24 hours to get rid of the chickens and Watts promptly moved them to a safe, undisclosed location. Since then, Watts and her husband, Blair Woods, have been busy. Both have a history of getting things done on the West Side: Among many other projects, they are founders of Urban Roots Community Garden Center, which has transformed their neighborhood. “It just seemed so natural for a gardener to have chickens,” Watts says.

Watts has now formed what she calls a “chicken task force.” She has already spoken with Niagara Councilmember David Rivera and others officials in City Hall, and is compiling some information to present to the Common Council to urge the Council to lift the ban. After a petition is delivered to the Council and the necessary public forum has been held, it may be a couple months before the ban could be lifted. “I strongly feel that I’ve made enough noise that people will think twice,” Watts says.

Locavores are increasingly looking for new and better ways to get their food as fresh and locally as possible; urban chicken farming may be one solution for Buffalonians. Chicken manure is excellent fertilizer for garden soil and chickens eat pest insects—not to mention the fresh eggs, which are rich in omega-3 fatty acids. An owner can manipulate the egg’s nutrients by controlling what it feeds the hens. Watts says she was getting four or five eggs a day at peak laying season.

The New York Times, Newsweek, and Slate have all run trend stories about urban chicken farming in the past two years. A magazine called Backyard Poultry was founded in 2006 to appeal to the urban chicken farming market. It’s a growing trend in many cities, including New York City, where backyard chickens is legal. In Madison, Wisconsin, a grassroots group called the Chicken Underground petitioned and overturned a city ban on backyard chickens in 2004. The movement is gaining steam .and Watts hopes it will extend to Buffalo.

Both Watts and Michael Murphy, an animal control officer for the city, admit there are more chickens in Buffalo than one might imagine. “It’s more than you would think, in places that you would be surprised,” Watts says.

Murphy says the 2004 amendment was made to outlaw cockfighting in the city. “I try to be as pleasant as possible with the constituents because they almost treat the chickens like pets,” Murphy. “A lot of times they get really attached.”

Watts is no eccentric; she’s an urban cheerleader and fierce defender of her Rhode Island Street neighborhood. She acquired the chickens to improve her lifestyle and is grateful that lawmakers are willing to reopen the discussion. “I know we’re not on a farm, we’re in a city,” she says. “You do it to scale.”

—ellen przepasniak

Reader Comments

KFCYum
02 Apr 2009, 11:08

What a complete joke. I like chicken as much as the next guy (usually with some corn on the cob and gravy), but to waste the time of the city on getting special laws passed for yupies who want to keep chickens in their yards.

Pay your fine lady and buy eggs from the store like normal people. This is a public health issue. Ever heard of bird flu or simanela? Keeping chickens in a confined space is a public health issue. You are not a farmer and your little chicken coop is a blight. Ask your neighbors if they like that stinky mess on their property line? Talk about bringing down the neighborhood.

People need a license to own a dog in Buffalo, what would the license to breed chickens cost? I say $10,000 a year plus paying for regular inspection of the chicken ranch. That's a funny one, running a chicken ranch in Buffalo. If you want to be a chicken farmer move to the country where it is legal. Oh, but that isn't the point, this is a yupi thing.

tennessee
02 Apr 2009, 14:16

Ask the neighbors if they want to make your mortgage payments and pay your property taxes. If the answer is yes then they have a say. Otherwise they can keep their nose in their own business. Everyone should have the right to own and enjoy chickens. We have way too many frivolous laws which infringe our constitutional rights.

David Smith
02 Apr 2009, 14:33

City and County Laws can only be Enforced on city and County owned property,they can not be enforced on Private owned property,please check you're CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT'S out,these are WE THE PEOPLES RIGHT'S

KFCYum
02 Apr 2009, 15:23

Take it from someone who knows chicken, the little birds create an awful stink. Even a clean chicken coop stinks. The American Farm Bureau recommends that a chicken coop be placed at least 1/4 acre from any structure (i.e. home). This is for sanitary reasons. The people who live next door to the chicken coop in the city will get to smell the stink in their yard all summer, and if they have their windows open it will stink up their house.

It is inconsiderate and unfair to burden neighbors with a stinky chicken coop in an urban neighborhood. Also, anyone alergic to fowl, will suffer. And, fowl carry disease, especially domestic fowl confined in outdoor pens. It is a formula for disease.

I would recommend that the neighbors to any chicken coop in Buffalo invite the stray cats in the area over to solve the problem. Or, just open the door to the chicken coop one night and free the chickens from their bondage.

It is the ultimate in anti-social behavior for someone to move to the city and try to force their neighbors to endure health risks and nusiances due to their unwillingness to live on a farm where they would prefer to be. There are plenty of places to live in WNY where you can buy rural land and subsistance farm.

BTW: if David Smith is correct, then I would like to purchase the property adjacent to his and plant giant hogweed. In fact, we can save money and plant it on any vacant lot in town, no infraction unless it is a county or city owned lot. Of course I am only kidding, the point is that David Smith is nuts.

David Smith
02 Apr 2009, 16:36

If that is what you would like to do ,more power to you,you would not hear me complain,in fact it might help slow down the wind problem we have!,how ever, in regards to poultry, evidentually you have never been around poultry, they do not have the odor you suggest,nor the disease's you imply,you must be listening to Humane Society propaganda!,I may be nut's but at least I know of what I talk about!....Hi, my name is Randal and I lived by David and the whole time I lived where I live I have raised every animal that you can raise and I live in the city limits mainly to eat but sometimes as pets I have always wanted to lived in the country but could never afford the $500.00 to $1000.00 an acre and the only time I had a neighbor complain is because they didn't have enough yard to have animals.

KFCYum
02 Apr 2009, 17:51

All you need is $1000 for an acre of land, you could pawn some stuff for that and move to your dreamland. Just plop a trailer on that land and you can live your days out as a gentleman farmer. If you don't have that much money, you have no business raising animal. You obviously can't afford vet bills.

Yes, chickens stink. You don't have to be a member of the Farm Bureau to know that. Places with laws know and require them to be kept at least 100 feet from a house. In Buffalo lots are not even 100 feet wide.

So, no chickens in the city. Keep them in the country.

Also, giant hoggweed are like poison oak on steroids. So, planting it on public or private land will land you in jail. It is a nusiance, just like those chickens.

I believe that old TV show Green Acres was based in a town in NY State. Is that what the Yupies want to turn Buffalo into? Do you have a talking pig names Arnold in your house?

Rivera should be kicked out of office for even giving lip service to the chicken laws.

Aimee Hartmann
03 Apr 2009, 12:43

just in case you hadn't seen.

David Smith
03 Apr 2009, 14:02

Rural America will remember the ultra large cities when food shortages come about,HR875 is in the making,The Govrnment will control food services,It's already in the making,people are loseing their job's and won't be able to pay the rent,mortage or utility bill's,nor buy food for their family's....I summit that animal's in a large city such as NY or Buffalo or any large city tends to offend people who do not have a clue as to what they are about,especially if they do not know how to care for those animal's or sanitation,that is what education is about, will you starve when you cannot get food?maybe rural America does'nt look so bad.Our Constitution is supreme law of the land,with out it there is no law,communism is on it's way to take over America.KFCYUM,I do respect you're right to you're opinion which is a right WE AMERICAN'S do have right now,not much longer though ,I am afraid.

Tara
03 Apr 2009, 19:18

I hope the ban is lifted. Other cities have been lifting their bans on urban chicken keeping. I do think that there should be a limit on the number of birds per square foot though for both abuse and sanitary reasons.

I often find that, though I like dogs, people let their dog go to the bathroom on other peoples lawns killing their gardens. Plus it is trespassing. And all the dog droppings on the sidewalk are more annoying then a penned chicken. And they do not ban dogs, do they? I think dogs and their lazy keepers are more of a problem. At least chickens stay in their pens and produce valuable food products.

User Loser
04 Apr 2009, 15:58

I once worked for this lady who wanted to make a chicken coop into an art studio. Well to make a long story short she spent a lot of money then they burned down the chicken coop and started over because they couldn't get the smell out of it...Good luck with that. People are against factory farming how is raising chickens in the city different from a factory farm? Is some postage stamp backyard going be enough for a chicken? Seems kind of like re-engineering the wheel we've been there and bought the Tee shirt there's a reason chickens aren't allowed in the city but whatever. Ah the stupid it burns.

John Q Blogger
06 Apr 2009, 03:52

A question about chickens are their droppings something that rats will eat?

We have a problem in Buffalo with quality of life enforcement of noise ordinances. There are pedestrians pushing baby carriages in the street instead of on sidewalks. We have children riding bikes in the street without helmets protecting their heads. We have dogs and cats being abandoned and mistreated constantly. We have junk cars being stored in back yards and garbage totes being stored in front yards. Just drive around Buffalo like the inspectors do not do unless they are called out.

The point if the City of Buffalo allows chickens raising with a stipulation that they must be properly cared for what makes anybody believe these ordinances will be enforced?

Take a drive on the West and East side of Buffalo and look at all the blighted homes in Buffalo. What makes anybody believe that those who cannot keep the front of their homes clear of litter or their homes painted or who won't shovel their sidewalk in winter will abide by laws for raising chickens? Factor in what occurs at absentee landlord problems and chickens raising might well be not something we should allow in this city.

Chicken coops might be a Pandora's box.

KFCYum
06 Apr 2009, 11:15

This is so silly. Yupi designer chickens need rights, no chickens equals communism. Ha Ha Ha. Thanks for the laughs. Whatever happened to all those pot belly pigs yupies were fighting for a few years ago? They outgrew their homes and now live on farms or at an annimal shelter. At least someone can eat the chickens when the yupies get bored with them and move on to the next fad.

What's next, the urge for fresh milk in the morning and the demand to keep cows and goats in the yard. Maybe the yupies will aquire a taste for crickets or seahorses and demand their rights. Maybe it will become fashionable for yupies to have pet tigers or alligators soon. I understand alligator eggs are tasty treats.

Bring it on yupies, we all need a good laugh from time to time.

John Q Blogger
08 Apr 2009, 03:11

We can't get people to recycle in Buffalo. What makes us believe that people in this city will be responsible enough to abide by chicken raising ordinances.

Maybe we need to apply for stimulus money for chicken watching cameras? Sorry I couldn't resist some chicken crossing the road humor to get to the other side for a close up.

John Q Blogger
08 Apr 2009, 18:16

Can I get a buck buck?

Joe
08 Jun 2009, 16:24

I used to live on a farm when I was a kid, and we had many animals, including chickens. I believe that health concerns regarding chickens in the city would be minimal at best. Chicken can harbor certain pathogens, but guess what, so can other domestic animals. Chickens also give off very little odor when properly cared for.

Like any other domestic animals, chickens do require some care. They should have access to fresh water, food, and grit. A little room for foraging outdoors seems beneficial as well. They should have their housing cleaned regularly. An absorbent, dry medium such as straw peatmoss works well, and can be composted.

People should consider the size of the flock, daily cleaning and disposal of waste, and containment of food. So long as these issues are addressed, there shouldn't be any problems with disease or rodents.