Right to keep chickens

Photo: CTV Vancouver

Robin Friesen and Jordan Maynard rented the farm in Vancouver’s Southlands neighbourhood that they currently call home with every intention of  continuing to farm.

The couple spent the winter talking what crops they wanted to plant and what strategies they would use for fertilizing the soil. Eventually, they settled on chickens, which could be rotated around the grounds to provide a natural fertilizer, as well as a constant supply of eggs.

But problems soon started. 

“We had a neighbour who didn’t enjoy waking up to a rooster,” Friesen said. “They called the bylaw officer, and the bylaw officer came down here and told us we couldn’t have a rooster and we can only have four hens.”

Even though the farm is part of the province’s Agricultural Land Reserve, which protects the “right to farm” for its occupants, that provincial law is superceded by the Vancouver Charter, which means the city’s bylaws regarding chickens still apply.

“Unfortunately, there is a gap in the Southlands plan,” Friesen said.

The plan for the neighbourhood, which the city took over in 1988, lays out Vancouver’s vision for the only remaining farmland within its borders. Part of the plan, according to Friesen and Maynard, called for protecting the right to farm for Southlands residents, but the bylaw that would have enabled that protection was never approved by the city council.

“I think it goes against everything that the city says they’re trying for,” Friesen said. “It’s not very green.”

For now, the 150 hens that live on the property remain safe, and Pepper is living on a nearby farm temporarily in order to keep the neighbours happy. The city has told Friesen and Maynard that they can have additional time to relocate their chickens, but unless council changes the rules, the birds will have to be moved eventually.

-with files from CTV Vancouver