Start designing your coop: Backyard chickens closer to reality in Kamloops | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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Start designing your coop: Backyard chickens closer to reality in Kamloops

The city is preparing to put rules in place to allow backyard chickens in Kamloops.
Image Credit: File photo

KAMLOOPS - Kamloops residents may soon be able to keep their own backyard coops as urban chickens moved one step closer to reality this week.

Staff will move forward with creating an outline for what urban chickens in Kamloops should look like after city council approved an urban agriculture plan this week.

In a look at how urban chickens are faring in other communities, concerns about smell or noise are surprisingly not as predominant as those of negligent chicken owners. Compliance, including not registering the animals, is a bigger issue in other cities, according to community development supervisor Carmin Mazzotta.

Mazzotta says proper disposal of chicken carcasses appears to be one of the biggest concerns surrounding urban hens.

Conservation officers are also concerned chickens will attract wildlife into the city. Coops will likely need protective, possibly even electric, netting. Mazzotta says chicken feed will need to be secured as well.

These rules could be up to three years away though, according to Mazzotta, and the earliest discussions on the topic will likely begin is in 2016.

Along with chickens, the plan contains objectives around creating more community gardens and edible landscapes in public spaces. Mazzotta says the city also received a lot of feedback regarding composting and curbside pick-up is being explored as an option.

While there is an appetitie to allow backyard chickens, urban pigs turned out to be not as appealing. Even though original plans would have only allowed the swines on large rural lots within city limits, the pigs were ultimately not included in the final plan.

The food and urban agriculture plan was developed out of the larger agriculture area plan. Studies and public input began in 2014. 

To contact a reporter for this story, email Dana Reynolds at dreynolds@infonews.ca or call 250-819-6089. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

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