So Impressed!! Ordinance Approved!

Thank you to the seventy or so folks who came to the City Council Meeting Monday night! Your speeches and our showing made a huge difference, and the three nays had to more or less apologize. The heartfelt speeches - including some awesome youth, a marine, and citizens from all over the city - were powerful! The ordinance was voted in - chickens will be approved in Aurora. We still have two more steps to take, but these should go through without problem. There is one more vote that has to happen but votes rarely change at this stage. When I get details from Sally Mounier I will post them. Then it has to be put into the code. Sally suggested that once it is approved, we can be fairly sure that it will become an official ordinance legalizing chickens this summer.

You did what???!!!

Nice work y'all!!

Please Call City Council Before Monday's Meeting

For our last, important push before Monday's vote (so today or tomorrow), please do the following, per Sally's urging: 

Here follows what I believe will work to impress Councilman Bob Roth.

This is a two step process:

1. Call the Aurora City Council Office at 303.739.7015 M-F between 8am – 5pm.  You will reach a live person.  Say “I am an Aurora citizen, and I am supporting the chicken ordinance.  Please count me in as in favor of allowing chickens."
2. Then ask to be connected to Bob Roth’s office.  You will leave a message saying, "My name is XXXX and I am a citizen of Aurora.  I hope you will change your mind and support letting us have a few hens.  Thank you."

This will do two things…let the council staff keep accurate, by the numbers, track of the support for or against chickens.  And two, will give Roth brief, concise messages that there is a great deal of support for chickens.

3. Lastly, I would ask the group to email Bob Roth the reason for their support for chickens.  His email address is robert.c.roth@gmail.com.  

That should have a positive affect on our efforts. 

Thanks, Sally

COME TO THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING TO SHOW SUPPORT AND SPEAK

WE ARE THIS CLOSE BUT HAVE COME UNDER FIRE!

There is an Aurora City Council meeting on February 24th at 7:30 pm, where the ordinance to approve chickens will be voted on by council. It was approved in Study Session but can be voted down here - especially since there are members on council who are adamantly opposed and fighting dirty (twisting the truth and being really rude).

We really really really need you to show up for this council meeting. You do NOT have to speak, but are encouraged to do so. Sally Mounier is going to try and ask the supporters to stand. Bob Roth is also likely to rally people who are against this to be there (he is opposed and is organizing folks to fight it, despite the fact - and because of the fact - that we got our six yes votes we needed).

I know we are all busy and have our day to day lives, but this could really make or break us moving forward. PLEASE SHOW UP! Please consider speaking.

Sally Mounier has been working really hard to get things to this point, and is not planning on letting the ordinance stay where it is at (there are a few parts we don't really like that we have compromised on in order to get it passed.) There have to be compromises *at this point*. If this vote FAILS we will need to raise around $75,000 to *try* and get it on the ballot, during which time chickens will still be illegal. The ordinance as it stands gets our foot in the door.

Again, PLEASE COME TO THE COUNCIL MEETING ON FEB. 24th at 7:30 pm. If you want to speak in support of chickens in Aurora, you have to sign up before the meeting. Rally your neighbors, your friends and anyone you know that is able to show up.

If you're on Facebook you can let us know you will be coming if you like, https://www.facebook.com/events/636012036434366/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular

If it gets approved at this meeting - which it should, but again, feelings are high about the issue - then the ordinance will go through one more vote and be approved.

________________________

City Council meeting
Date/Time:	Mon, Feb 24, 2014 7:30 p.m.
Location:	Council Chambers   Map 15151 E. Alameda Parkway Aurora, Colorado 80012 Event resides in Aurora.
Contact:	Janice Napper, 303-739-7094
A Study Session will be held prior to the City Council meeting. Information regarding the time and location will be posted as it becomes available.

January 2014 Update on the Movement to Allow Chickens in Aurora

We're so close! Where we now stand is that we have five "yes" votes: Sally Mounier, Renie Peterson, Debbi Hunter Holen, Bob LeGare and Marsha Berzins. We need six votes to pass. In a tie (which we currently have with five) the mayor will vote (otherwise he doesn't vote) so we need a yes from Mayor Steve Hogan (303-739-7015) and/or another council member. The member closest to giving us a yes is Barb Cleland, 303-739-7524. Call your representative and each of the At Large members, let him or her know you support chickens, thank them for a yes vote, or ask them to consider chickens. Let them know why you support this change in the ordinance.

Next, we have 491 signatures on our online petition - let's hit 500 before the next study session meeting on February 10th! Get your friends and neighbors to sign the petition to legalize chickens in Aurora here.

So this Study Session: The ordinance change has come up in Study Session (a meeting of council members to hash out details), and changes have been proposed in the interest of compromising and making anti-chicken council members reconsider their position. The main changes are that the proposed ordinance would allow for only four chickens per household and that you would have to notify your neighbors (probably in writing by mail and they wouldn't have to approve it, just not fight your getting chickens) before getting chickens. You would have to purchase a permit, keep the coop and run clean, and keep your hens (no roosters) in the run at all times. There are two responses to this "let the neighbors know" bit: one, if that's what we have to agree to in order to get this thing passed, fine; two, you don't have to notify your neighbors if you want a dog or a cockatiel, so why chickens??? Let your council members know how you feel about the requirement to notify your neighbors about your getting chickens.

With a revised ordinance that at least six members of council can live with, we could legalize chickens in time for spring hatching!

However, if it gets turned down at this stage, the next step is to get it on the ballot for next November, and let citizens vote on it.

Sign, call, and recruit neighbors. Let the naysayers know that this isn't just a backwoods crazy plan to hick-ify Aurora, but a sustainable, popular movement that connects us with the land, our food, and our neighbors.

Q & A for Concerns about Backyard Chickens

Why Should City Ordinance Allow Hens?

Cities all over America allow and even encourage backyard hens. They are fun, educational, and make good neighbors. Here are answers to the biggest concerns regarding backyard chickens.

Q: Aren’t chickens loud and obnoxious?
A: Hens are quieter than dogs or parrots. They do give out a baak-baak-baak noise when they lay an egg or see a predator, but it’s not early in the morning or at night and is, again, quieter than a barking dog. Roosters will not be allowed in city limits.

Q: Don’t they stink?
A: When well-cared-for as suburban pets (not as farm animals) they don't smell. This is as simple as weekly coop cleanings and daily attending to food and water, just like with any other pet.

Q: I don’t want chickens wandering around my neighbor’s yard, getting into my yard, or getting into the street. How are they contained? Is that cruel?
A: Backyard chickens lead happy, healthy lives. Kept in attractive garden coops they won't roam into neighbors' yards (like some dogs and cats do!) or the street. When we regulate backyard hen-keeping, we can establish rules like not allowing them to free range and making sure pens are secure from predators.

Q: Won’t they attract predators like coyotes and foxes? What about pests like rats?
A: Chickens kept in secure coops and runs do not attract pests or predators any more than do house cats or garden areas. Just like with dog food, their food is kept safely in secure containers and does not attract pests.

Q: I’ve heard that chickens carry avian flu. Is this true?
A: Any bird can get infected with avian influenza, but the strains that affect humans are very rare and have never been found in small, backyard flocks in the US. Most avian influenza found is in very large flocks of birds (and in the US are not the strains that can infect humans). This is true of other diseases as well, which is why store-bought eggs often contain antibiotics. Backyard hens’ eggs do not contain antibiotics, which makes them much safer to eat. Keeping hens in a secure run and coop reduces their risk of being exposed to wild birds (particularly wild waterfowl) which may be infected. The risk of salmonella is also much lower in a well-kept, small flock of suburban hens. As with caring for any pets, simply washing your hands well before and after handling or caring for chickens will vastly reduce risk of contracting any illness from them. The risk with diseases in hens is no higher than with other pets (such as after cleaning out a cat box). It is much lower than with factory farmed birds, because backyard chickens live happy healthy lives in healthy conditions.

Q: Won’t allowing hens cost the city lots of money?
A: In Longmont, CO, and in Missoula, MT, they were concerned about the same thing, and found allowing hens did not make more work or cost for the city and animal care. There are more complaints about dogs than chickens, even in cities where they are allowed.

Q: What are the benefits of chickens?
A: Composted droppings make incredible garden fertilizer: Reduce/Reuse/Recycle!

Fresh organic eggs are healthier for you and the environment: no fuel used trucking them to stores! Since hens eat a combination of weeds/grass, bugs, and grain-based feed, keeping them yourself reduces the cost of free-range, healthful eggs. Gardens and small flocks of hens help keep food secure by reducing food-borne illness and reducing the risk of tampering.
Chickens are funny, entertaining, and educational, and are easy pets to care for, great for people of all abilities.

For more information, please see www.urbanchickens.net, www.backyardchickens.com, and aurorachickens.blogspot.com.

Meeting for Chicks for Aurora!

Everyone interested in supporting legal backyard chickens in Aurora is invited to attend our next meeting, Thursday, June 13th, 2013, at 6pm at Crawford Community Center (school), 1600 Florence St.in Aurora. Hope you can join us! Spread the word!

Update on the Movement to Legalize Chickens in Aurora, CO

A group of concerned citizens have flocked together to encourage folks to contact their Aurora, CO, city council representatives and request that backyard hen ownership be made legal in our lovely little town. In 2011 the issue was brought up before the council and soundly defeated. Our approach this time is different than last time, since apparently logic, research, and a solid presentation fell on deaf (or stubborn) ears. We are organizing from the ground up, sitting around the kitchen table to discuss gardening, chickens, bees, and community. We need to convince six representatives that such a movement is of value to our community. And we will do so!

Here in an eggshell is why we want chickens approved:

• Backyard eggs means food security, money savings, and better health.
• Hens make good pets, are quieter than dogs, and when cared for are not smelly or dangerous.
• When you make something legal you can educate and regulate, so people who keep hens will do so in a way that keeps the hens safe and healthy, and protects the neighborhood.
• Hens are great for kids, people with special needs, the house-bound, and just about everyone else.
• Chickens create community. When we had hens, it became a conversation piece with our neighbors, even those who speak different languages than we or who otherwise wouldn't say hello. 
• Hens are a perfect extension of organic gardening, providing manure and eating pests. Did you know chickens eat mice and mosquitoes?
• Hen keeping is not a throw-back to old farm days or dusty rural ways (although there isn't anything wrong with that, it seems not in keeping with the image Aurora seeks for itself), but a progressive and trendy movement embraced by many cities across the United States.
• Chickens need feed, shavings, hay, and chicken treats. I can think of several local businesses that would benefit from expanding to fill this need.

We are proposing the legalization of keeping 8 hens, no roosters, in safe and contained coops and runs. An affordable one-time fee paid to the city when applying for a permit is standard in most cities.

If you would like to get involved by spreading the word or contacting your representative, please post a comment here or email me at clea dot danaan at gmail dot com.

Urban Chickens Make Healthy Kids and Strong Communities

Helping the Hungry

One in eight people struggle with hunger, including many children. One way municipalities can help their hungry citizens for very little cost is to promote backyard gardens, including keeping small flocks of chickens. Eggs from hens allowed to forage and move freely (even within appropriately sized enclosed areas) are much higher in nutrients than those available at grocery stores.  From Mother Earth News:

"In 1988, Artemis Simopoulos, co-author of The Omega Diet, found that eggs from pastured hens in Greece contained 13 times more omega-3s than eggs from U.S. supermarkets. In 1974, a British study found that eggs from pastured hens had 50 percent more folic acid and 70 percent more vitamin B12 than eggs from factory-farmed hens. In 1997, a study in Animal Feed Science and Technology found eggs from free-range chickens had higher levels of both omega-3s and vitamin E than those from hens maintained in cages and fed commercial diets. Most recently, in 2003, Pennsylvania State University researchers reported that birds kept on pasture produced three times more omega-3s in their eggs than birds raised in cages on a commercial diet. They also found twice as much vitamin E and 40 percent more vitamin A in the yolks of the pastured birds."

Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2005-08-01/Free-Range-Eggs.aspx#ixzz259F4gnNC

Backyard hens' eggs cost about $2 a dozen (for feed and wood shavings; less if they are given more kitchen scraps, weeds and grass), which cost more than $4 a dozen for (almost) comparably nutritious eggs at the grocery store. They are a great source of affordable protein.

Backyard urban hen keeping saves a family money and saves the city money on feeding the hungry.  It also saves a municipality money by reducing the food scraps that go into the waste stream (to see what you can feed hens from the kitchen, click here).

Food Security

If someone wanted to cripple a whole lot of people, that someone could attack large sources of food, such as the drought has attacked the nation's corn crop this year. Or when 228 million eggs were recalled in August 2010 because of a huge salmonella outbreak. When you grow corn in your backyard and raise a small flock of hens for eggs, you are at a much smaller risk of food losses. Taxpayers and insurance companies and families save money on health care costs from such outbreaks.

In his life-changing book Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, Bill McKibben discusses at length the importance of focusing on small and local. Food, energy, and governance needs to be focused on local, manageable projects. Keeping a backyard flock is part of that movement.

Vitamin N

Contact with nature including gardens and pets (backyard chickens are a hybrid of pets and food source), has shown to reduce mental illness - including depression and anxiety - obesity and even violence.  It improves mood and the ability to concentrate (hello test scores), and speeds up physical healing. Backyard gardens, parks, household pets, neighborhood trees, and yes, chickens, help create healthier people and healthier communities. Richard Louv calls contact with nature Vitamin N. In his book The Nature Principle, he writes, "an emerging high-tech/high-nature housing design philosophy includes conserving energy, using nature-friendly materials, and also applying biophilic design principles to promote health, human energy, and beauty." (p. 161) Backyard chickens are not a fallback to dirt yards in podunkville, they are a part of a diverse and progressive redesign of urban living that includes wilderness, gardens, and high-tech living.

Healthy Children and Communities

What happens when you give kids nutritious food, a sense of security, and a connection with nature? They do better in school and are less likely to follow a violent lifestyle.

And what about adults? Well, the same thing happens. Healthy, safe, engaged adults care for themselves and their neighbors.

Now who wouldn't want to create these conditions for their cities? Well cared for urban chickens need to be legalized in Aurora, Colorado.