Our family started raising chickens, roosters, and ducks 16 months ago. My youngest son had an interested in raising animals and wanted chickens. To my surprise my sister gifted my son 5 chicks and a duckling for his 7th birthday. I will fully admit that I was not happy about the situation because I didn’t want the added responsibility. However, this “project” has been a family affair and together we have learned a lot.

We incubated over 20 eggs last year and watched the process unfold. We had 14 eggs hatch and 10 of those ended up being roosters. We have had close to 30 chickens within our fenced in yard and never any complaints. When we did decide to part with our roosters I had a neighbor call to ask if we had gotten rid of our chickens because the silence was eerie. If for any reason there is a strong odor that’s just a lack of education or simple cleaning needs to take place. 

Backyard poultry (roosters included) allow for fresh, extremely local food production on a small, manageable scale. They pose no greater health risks than cats and are not anywhere near the noise disturbance of dogs. Responsible pet ownership makes city poultry not only efficient food producers, but sensible animals to allow within the city limits of Hartford City.

With the cities potential ordinance we ask you this: Are we bothering you? If us owning poultry doesn’t interfere with your life we ask you to sign this petition. If us owning poultry does interfere we also ask you to sign the petition with a simple explanation. 

We thank you for your time.