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As of January 1, it’s been 6 months since backyard chickens have been legal in the City of Manchester and by the interest in and popular support for the change you may have guessed that now, for the first time since the 1980s, when they were banned, we again have legal chickens residing within the city limits!
Almost a year ago, some city residents created a petition to legalize backyard chickens. The end goal of the petition process would have been for the petitioners to create an ordinance that would have been presented to the City Council for vote, and if failed, go on the ballot for city residents to vote on. The City Council, supportive of the idea, headed off the petition process by forming a committee to draft an ordinance. Jessyca Hannah, a newer resident who raised chickens at her previous home and kicked off the process to legalize them here when she discovered that they were prohibited, was a key member of the committee and is now happily raising backyard chickens.
Under the ordinance, households can raise from five to 15 birds, depending on yard size. Since Hannah’s property is a little under two acres, they meet the requirements to have up to 15. They decided on 12 total, and started with eight: two Leghorns (white chickens that lay white eggs), two Easter Eggers (black/brown and brown chickens that lay green eggs), two Australorps (black chickens that lay dark brown eggs), and two ISA Browns (brown chickens that lay light brown/pink eggs). One of the Leghorns died mid-summer. She explained that they will be adding five to the brood in the spring and as of right now, they know they want to replace the Leghorn, but they aren’t sure what the other four will be yet…