New Business - Item C - City Commission Meeting 4/21 - Chickens, Ducks and Bees

Commissioner Jennings has placed an item under New Business that suggests the amendment of the City Code to allow chickens, ducks and bees in the City of Lake Worth. This is, at this point, just a suggestion to the Mayor and Commissioners to consider this and is not offered as an ordinance or public hearing at this time. (Click title for link to back-up)

O.K. - I get that we need to be closer to the source of our supply of food. The infrastructure that supports our food delivery system is very energy intensive and contributes to global warming. I also get that eggs are a good protein source and having the means to do that relieves people that are of meager means from shelling out money for protein.

What I don't get is how does this make sense in the environment we know as Lake Worth? Generally speaking, we have 25 and 50 ft. wide lots through out most of the city. The way this is proposed, this would allow 6 chickens per person plus 6 ducks per person. That means if you have a property with a family of six, you could have a total of 36 chickens and 36 ducks. Think of the amount of manure produced by the birds during a week's time, multiplied by 52 weeks a year. Commissioner Jennings mentions the creation of "nitrogen rich" fertilizer - exactly how much can be accommodated on one property? We would be creating another waste stream that would ultimately be the city's responsibility to take care of, right? Do we add another day to the already overly complicated trash collection schedule for the collection of bird waste? Do we then establish a program that uses the waste in city parks? Who is going to enforce the number of animals per person? Don't we have a problem enforcing the number of people living at a property already? Can we afford to have another burden placed on our already over-burdened code enforcement personnel?

With chickens come roosters - there are already some in the city which crow when the sun comes up. Chickens in a coop, as described, will need to be permitted and some sort of zoning review would be needed to make sure the setback is not being violated. Chickens may not be confined all the time and their natural tendency is to roost at night, in trees. These trees may be on the lot of the chicken owner, or on the lot of a neighbor that may or may not like chickens. Chickens do not understand the concept of property lines.

One would also assume that periodically, if there is a rooster present, that there will be chicks and at some point the magic number of six per person would be breached. At that point, we can predict that one of the older chickens may become dinner. What happens to the offal created by slaughter of chickens? Feral cats colonies are all over the city - how do they play into this newly created ecosystem? Has anyone considered avian flu?

So, there are a lot of questions - and many of the same would apply to ducks. What is too bad is that Commissioner Jennings doesn't want us to ask these questions. If you dare ask questions about this you are labeled as someone who supports mechanized farming, promotes global warming and continues to perpetuate oppression of the masses - or just plain evil. Just like if you were against the labor - oops, Mentoring Center - then somehow you were a racist.

Why bring this up now at a time when we already have enough situations in this city that need to be addressed? Adding another controversial item to the to-do list isn't the way to address the city's real problems.

I wonder, did Commissioner Jennings army of door knockers tell those in College Park of that her "Grand Work Plan" - her words - included the introduction of chickens to the city?

I'm still looking into the bees and will probably have more on the chickens and the ducks later.