Next Step in the Legal Process

We are hoping that this issue will be part of the agenda next month. At that meeting, there will be a vote to determine if this issue will you go Council. The is an open meeting, which we could ask to attend, and make deputations (5 minutes maximum). The Committee will debate, ask questions and discuss. At the end of the meeting, they will either:
a) Adopt the recommendation
b) Amend the recommendation
c) Ask for new motions – refer back to Staff
You could email clerk@toronto.ca to receive updates and have your name added to the attendance list. We should know by June 15th if we will be on the agenda. Please check back here for details.

If the decision is made to take it to Council, it will likely come up either in the July or October meeting. At that meeting, we could observe only.

14 comments

  • Rebecca says:

    great website! i have a question: if chickens are eventually allowed in toronto, will they have to kept 50 feet from neighbouring properties? if that’s the case, i don’t think it’s of much help to most people because most lots in the city are not that big.

  • Chicken Waiting says:

    It looks like we’re not on the agenda again. For 3 years it seems like it will go to commitee but it never seems to make it. I think it’s time that interested parties just start to break the law and have their chickens! I know I’m sick of waiting now, so that’s what I’ll be doing.

    Hopefully we do get the green light from the city and they see what a great benefit having our own birds is for all.

  • Summer says:

    What happened? Can’t find results??

    • Chicken Waiting says:

      It didn’t make the schedule and it will now be discussed during the September meeting of the committee is what I’ve heard from the clerk.

  • Chicken Waiting says:

    We are now outlaws too! We picked up our 3 hens yesterday and so far have had 6 eggs in just over 24hrs! They were laying in the car ride! So far so good and the neighbours haven’t noticed OR they are plotting :D Hopefully in September we’ll all be keeping hens on the right side of the law. Until then, we’ll just have to hope the raccoons or the bylaw officers don’t get to them!

  • Rebecca says:

    what would happen if we were to be caught having hens? would it just be a fine (what’s the amount?), or something else? or a combination of consequences?

    also, if i were to keep the chickens near the neighbour’s fence, could they hear them when they’re walking by about 8 feet away? i know roosters make a loud noise, but i don’t know about hens.

    thanks,
    rebecca

    • Chicken Waiting says:

      Chickens make noise that you’re neighbours will eventually notice. Ours have been fine and are interested in the birds. There’s always the risk of getting busted which I think starts with an order to stop and then moves onto fines. Last week I had a redtail hawk land on the run and our red sex links were VERY vocal about the intruder. If you think your neighbours aren’t going to be cool with the chickens, then I wouldn’t until the law changes. One other note too, there is no smell unless you forget to clean them out for a bit. I use pine shavings and stall dry to control moisture and odour.

  • Christina says:

    I read this in Now Toronto a while back “The Toronto Environment Office is spearheading efforts to draft a bylaw that would make keeping up to six birds in your backyard legal, as long as their coops are well-maintained, no animals are slaughtered inside the city, and any birds brought into the city are over four months old. Before that age they carry salmonella, and it’s too difficult to determine their sex when they’re so young. While Toronto’s hidden coops prove we can live side by side with hens without a problem, roosters are ridiculously loud and better left on the farm”

    Do you have any up to date info on this?

    • Chicken Waiting says:

      The committee was supposed to decide in the spring, then I was told the fall, and now I’m told it is getting pushed until spring 2012. I say just keep things hidden, bribe your neighbours with eggs and keep your fingers crossed. Its working for us. Our 3 hens are happily producing 3 (sometimes 4) eggs a day. All of the issues of rats, smell, noise, etc haven’t been a problem for us. If you look after them, feed them and keep them clean, you shouldn’t have any issues.

  • Anon says:

    As someone who moved from Toronto last year to a hobby farm in the country and now enjoys our own eggs, it is terribly frustrating to see that there seems to be little movement towards backyard chickens, despite the efforts made.

    One perspective of lawmakers (health regulations) is understandable, but only because they have been influenced too long by unreasonable information. Last year, though I bought hens and knew it was right, I couldn’t eat the eggs for weeks. I told myself, “Enough!” had a bite, had to throw it out, petrified I would contract something. The next time it was all fine and we’ve been eating them ever since. We have to deprogram ourselves! Now, even organic and free “run” eggs in the grocery store look bizarre (but, please don’t let me influence anyone’s decision to buy them!)

    I would just like to offer that if anyone needs to relocate their hens, please email me through my website and they can live with us. Hope that helps!

  • PRIMROSE ANNE WYLDE says:

    HI , I USED TO LIVE IN THE KEELE/ROGERS ROAD AREA.THERE WERE MANY PEOPLE WHO KEPT CHICKENS IN THEIR YARDS, IN THE VICINITY. I TOO, AS A CHILD KEPT CHICKENS- IN THE COUNTRY SIDE ON 1/3 OF AN ACRE OF LAND. PLENTY OF ROOM TO ROAM. AND AWAY FROM ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE DISTURBED BY THE NOISES. NEITHER DID WE HAVE RATS. NOR DID THEY SMELL AS WE KEPT OIUR CHICKENS CLEAN. THE REASONS I MOVED FROM THE AREA ARE AS FOLLOWS: THE SMELL WAS APPALLING, SOME OF THE CHICKENS WERE ABUSED & KEPT IN A GARAGE- NO LIGHT & MANY TOXIC FUMES; THE BIRDS WERE NOISY; & THERE WERE RATS…. MANY OF THEM!! CHICKENS IN TORONTO NEED TO BE REALLY MONITORED. GREAT IDEA IF YOU KNOW HOW TO FARM DECENTLY! THANK YOU

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