Co-operative urban chicken coop pitched in Windsor

An unemployed Windsor man wants the city to reconsider its ban on urban chickens.

In a city where unemployment is 9.2 per cent, Mahfooz Zafoor, a father of four, said keeping his family well fed is a growing concern.   

"The people who can understand [are] those who don't having a job. Otherwise, when your tummy is full you cannot understand," he said.

Zafar wants to provide his family with an endless supply of eggs by raising chickens in his backyard.

This coop in his yard is ready to be occupied, but Windsor's bylaw banning urban chickens is in the way of putting it to use.

Bylaw 8156, passed on March 18, 1985, bans the keeping of chickens, turkeys, ducks and other "domestic fowl" within city limits. The fine for violations is $100.

"I am not a rich man. If a person like me can eat fresh eggs, please, don't stop us," Zafar pleaded.

Zafoor said he is a law-abiding citizen, so he won't break any bylaws but others have alleges Philippa Vonziegenweidt.

"Yes I do know of a couple of people," she claimed.

Since council refused to have a committee look into the idea of urban chickens, Vonziegenweidt found another way to take a crack at having fresh eggs.

She is a member Windsor's CLUCK, a group that runs a coop co-op in Essex County. Approximately 15 urban farmers have banded together and built a small co-op out in the County. Each member takes turns caring for the flock.

"We go and collect eggs on that day and when you have your turn you have to also clean out the coop and bring food and water to the chickens and take care of them," she said.

Low-income families struggle

But the location out in the county puts lower income families of Windsor at  a disadvantage.   They struggle to find the transportation to get them to the coop to participate in the co-op.

Windsor's council has said long denied chickens running free in backyards but coop co-ops have never been addressed, said Coun. Drew Dilkens.

Dilkens took a hard line on urban chickens calling it "clucking ridiculous" and citing problems for neighbours.

Vonziegenweidt said there are some misconceptions about urban chickens.

"For example people believe that chickens make noise. they're afraid that there will be roosters everywhere. We want to explain to them that it's not about having roosters," She said. "And they're not smelly, they don't attract vermin.

"Although if you have a messy coop, that might cause issues. But we don't want to have messy coops. We want to have clean coops that have good quality eggs."

Approximately 400 people have signed a petition to have a collective coop built in Windsor.

A collective co-op has Dilkens reconsidering.

"I consider myself to be a reasonable person so let's sit down and look at whether there are any opportunities to have a coop," he said. "If there's a reasonable place we could find, that's not in someone's backyard or where it's going to disturb or be a nuisance to neighbours, we should explore the idea of a collective co-op. I'm not against it."

That thrills Vonziegenweidt, who said she intends to reach out to Dilkens.

"I started off believing that everybody should be allowed to have a backyard coop if they wanted to, but since we started our collective, I realize that there's a lot of good things to be said about the collective model," she said. "One of the most important things is that you can get away. If you want to go away for the weekend then there's somebody else to take care of it.

"I think it's important to have both options but starting a collective in the city would be a great way to start."

Windsor isn't alone in its ban on backyard chickens. They aren't allowed in Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton or Hamilton.