Living with urban chicken coops in Calgary

Dozens of Calgarians are now the proud owners of chicken coops, despite living within city limits.

After a pilot project, the City of Calgary opened up an unlimited amount of hen licenses available for people within the city.

That was the end of March, and now — five months later — the city has 149 urban hen licenses registered across the city.

“They’re funny little creatures, they really can be — I mean, we had one that used to come when she was called,” said urban chicken coop owner Jackie Blair. “She’d come from wherever she was in the yard, and she’d come running and I’m like ‘OK, that is more of a dog personality to come when you’re called.'”

Blair had a chicken coop in Calgary in the past, then chickens were banned in the city.

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She has had her coop back since the pilot project and she thinks the birds are important for education purposes.

“We need people to realize where their food is coming from and it doesn’t miraculously show up on the grocery shelf,” said Blair. “And the more people we get involved in knowing where their food comes from and helping them be able to put food on their table for their families, I think it’s a great program.

“I think it’s something that we can’t afford to lose again.”

The food from the urban hens is in the form of eggs, not meat.

Blair says the coop has minimal impact on her neighbours, although she does have a little neighbour who likes to look into the yard top see the birds.

A minimal impact on her neighbours is important to Blair because she wants licensing to stay put in the city.

“The thing is if somebody doesn’t step up and help make this a positive experience this bylaw can get changed, and we need to realize that this is not set in stone,” she said. “They could literally decide — the next council coming in — could have had enough complaints.

The City of Calgary does track urban hen complaints and sends a peace officer to check out a pen when necessary.