Like many of you, I moved to Beamsville to get away from the city. This small community surrounded by vast fields of agriculture feeds our families and children.

I became very passionate about agriculture from growing my own food and possibly raising my own livestock such as chicken.I began plotting my lot into the beginnings of a homestead. 

When I compared the pricing of raising chickens at home compared to the eggs in the store, it just made sense to do it myself. I took what wood I had from an old fence and some chicken wire to build my first coop and chicken run. I purchased my first baby chicks which I raised into full-grown laying hens.

The feeling that the first morning when I found eggs was like no other accomplishment in my life, I felt closer to nature and I wanted to nurture it because the rewards were unbelievably delicious. You can tell the difference between a store-bought egg and a free-range egg tenfold.

This was all extremely rewarding until one fateful morning when the bylaw officer showed up at our door. She presented us with a letter that threatened a $15,000 fine if we did not remove the chickens from our property.

I was heartbroken...

We packed up our little family members and donated them to a local farm where we felt they would be loved and taken care of, took down the run and repurposed the coop into a dog house.

Since then I have felt like a part of me is missing. How could a city like Toronto allow chickens and not Beamsville? How will I ever have the opportunity to educate my children about where their food comes from in my own backyard without having to move?

I'm not asking for much, I understand we have rules and by-laws for a reason, but I also feel the right to be able to be self-sufficient and self-sustainable with what land I have available to me. I also noticed that in summer the ticks population seemed to decrease, where now I am constantly finding them on myself, my dogs and my children.

Let's start a pilot program and begin making a change to the zoning by-laws which prevent Many families in the Lincoln area from keeping hens in our backyard.

Let's educate ourselves and our next generation on the Many benefits of backyard chickens. Let's build a real community and share our homegrown eggs with our neighbours. 

My proposal:

- implement a pilot program to allow residential zoning within Lincoln to have backyard chickens.

-Restrictions on the location of a chicken coop on properties to prevent neighbourly dispute. 

-Offer educational pamphlets through the Lincoln website to educate them the on rules, care and limitations of having backyard chickens.

Thank you for spending the time to read my story, I hope I have inspired you to take action, and who knows, maybe you will fall in love with these wonderful animals as I did.

Jon