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Talking turkey on the CBC about urban chickens

January 21st, 2009 · 12 Comments

That’s what a group of us will be doing this afternoon on CBC’s The Point, with Aamer Haleem. The Point panelists, including Simi Sara here in Vancouver, and I will talk about why the trend to allowing and raising urban chickens has emerged, what are the upsides and downsides of chicken raising, and other fascinating topics.

It’s on between 2:30 and 3 today.

Categories: Uncategorized

  • Blaffergassted

    Does this mean the bird flu scare is over?

  • A. G. Tsakumis

    Why not chickens in our yards?? Look at all the turkeys we elected to council over the years?

    Sorry, I couldn’t resist…

  • fbula

    Oh my god, the terrible puns emerge from their cocoons.

  • Denis

    Why would a few chickens be an issue, when the drunks are urinating, fighting and throwing up at around 4AM. The chickens have more sense than those clowns.

  • LP

    Has anyone had the joy of actually smelling chickens? We have enough problem in this town of people not picking up their dog shit, one can safely assume the risks of going down this ugly road.

    From personal experience (with chickens), this is a bad idea all around.

  • Sarah Blyth

    I love the sound of roosters in a city. I would love to be able to keep chickens for eggs, though I am not sure I would be able to do the part that it takes to bring a chicken from the yard to a dinner plate.

  • Bill Lee

    We used to have chickens in our yard for the eggs. Bought as
    pets and chicks from the former New Westminster city market.
    Kept in a pen.
    When they got red spots in the eyes, they started pecking
    the imagined blood spots on the eggs, so no eggs.
    There used to be Buckerfields stores and even hardware stores
    in Burnaby selling chicken feed.

    Burnaby was the last of the cities to outlaw chickens, and after
    ours were gone we could hear roosters in the Burnaby area crowing
    in the morninngs.

    And as far as H1N9 scare in Abbotsford, all birds are subject
    to a kill if they are outside birds. Good luck getting rid of
    birds in Vancouver when they can’t even find which streetlights
    are out along major thorougfares or side streets, nor control
    dogs or licence cats.

    And the troubles with Hallmark Processing on Commerical and
    Hastings means that the city isn’t ready for small “little farms”
    in various back yards.
    Brings to mind Salmon Ella’s raw milk fiascos.

  • tommi

    I agree with LP. If someone wants to raise barnyard animals, they can go live on a farm.

  • Wagamuffin

    Um, am I too late?

    Hope you didn’t lay an egg on that segment…

  • jesse

    Chickens are fine. But… NO ROOSTERS. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, NO ROOSTERS.

    Roosters are fine until you get one that starts going off at 2am because of some barking dog or ambulance siren. Anybody spending time in a rural village knows what I mean. All fine and good if you have to get up at 4am to plow the fields but in Vancouver? When nobody gets up before 9am? Not on.

  • A. G. Tsakumis

    Maybe they should put roosters in Yaletown…oh, I forgot, Sam will call the Premier and have them banished because it interferes with his sleep…

    Snakes and donkeys are exempt from such treatment though…professional courtesy…

  • Dan Vie

    BC URBAN CHICKENS – NEW WEB RESOURCE!

    Check out our BC Urban Chickens page, a place for BC folks to share information about raising chickens in the city. Includes resources on local efforts to change bylaws to allow backyard birds.

    This is a growing page and growing Google group for folks across the province to connect and share information/resources on urban chicken bylaws and raising chickens in urban areas.

    http:/www.farmfolkcityfolk.ca