Reader comments
Salt Lake Council's plan to limit ownership of chickens, bees creates unhappy buzz

I understand the issue with chickens. They do make noise and do draw flies. However, when it comes to bees, who cares? As long as there is a setback between the hives and property lines, what is the issue? Without these little creatures, there would be no fruit and a whole lot less flowers. Most hives are tame enough that beekeepers don't even wear protection when working them. Have you ever seen a swarm land on a bench or a car? The beekeeper shows up and brushes them into a cardboard box and takes them away. A ten hives limit is arbitrary and unenlightened.

In this time of economic strife it is unwise to discouragee home grown foods and family resources so they don't starve to death waiting for the illegals to leave the country. At a time when the government asks others to share their bounty with neighbors they want to shutdown this crop sharing attitude. If anything we should expand and lower the restrictions on home food supplies. Home grown foods is much safer than anything on the store shelf.

Personally, I like the sounds of country and farms, it makes me feel american and there is still those that care. The sounds of a rooster crowing at sunrise is great and lets you know there is still life in the area. I'd rather hear a rooster crow and bees buzzing and crickets chirping than useless dogs barking all night.

By same accusations of those objecting to farm animals, can I object to dogs and cats in the neighborhood? One dog or cat is more intrusive to neighbors than a coop full of chickens.

I had issues with a neighbor's chickens because of the noise. The rooster was crowing from 5AM clear out to 11PM every single day. If it was that much of a problem for me several houses away, I can only imagine what the adjacent homes must have been going through. Besides, I don't expect to see chickens in R-1-8 lots in the middle of suburbia. The nearby R-1-23 lots are a different story.

I kept chickens for years (and still would if I didn't live in a condo) and I never had issues with neighbors over them. In the event that we ended up with a rooster he was used for soup as soon as he uttered his first morning alarm and our chickens were so quiet that our neighbors often forgot they were there. Clipping wings keeps them from flying out of the yard, I can't see how anyone could have called them a nuisance.
Honestly the government should be rewarding self-reliance behavior such as home gardens, and home grown poultry and honey. In world war II Americans were urged to grow their "freedom gardens" to help the war effort (commerically grown food was shipped to soilders) why aren't we trying to do something similar now?

There is an excellent book just released by Novella Carpenter "Making of an Urban Farmer." Ms. Carpenter keeps her bees, Rabbits, Chickens and pigs, yes pigs, on a small urban lot next to her apartment in downtown Oakland. The book is not just about animal husbandry but is more about being intouch with your food source, creating relationships with people you may not normally associate with and about being a self sufficient as possible. I kept hens for years, kept them clean, gave away masses of eggs and loved the experience and I agree hens can be less troublesome than most dogs and cats are.