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Allow Backyard Hens

Let's make Barrie a sustainable city by allowing backyard hens for the purpose of household egg consumption.
Many major North American cities, including Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Victoria, New York, Seattle, Chicago and Los Angeles, together with Ontario communities such as Niagara Falls, Brampton, Newmarket,
and Guelph, allow the small-scale raising of hens. Now it's Barrie's turn to join this positive and growing trend.
Hens have existed in cities since the dawn of time an
d continue to thrive in communities around the world to this day. The benefits of raising them include:

  • Fresh, healthy and delicious home-grown eggs, free of pesticides and antibiotics;

  • Reduced municipal solid waste as hens consume table scraps and other organic waste;

  • Reduced backyard pest populations as hens consume weeds and bugs;

  • Opportunities to teach children about food sources and responsible animal care; and

  • The addition of great "poultry pets" to families -- hens are people-friendly, nonaggressive and always entertaining to watch.

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Sharon shared this idea  ·   ·  Report…  ·  Admin →
under review  ·  AdminCity of Barrie (Admin, City of Barrie) responded  · 

The City of Barrie is in the process of creating a new comprehensive Zoning By-law, which will be designed to implement the vision and policies of Barrie’s recently adopted Official Plan.

Due to public interest, the new Zoning By-law proposes to establish zoning standards for chicken enclosures and use provisions for backyard chickens (see section 4.9).

To download the first draft of the new Zoning By-law and for full information, please visit BuildingBarrie.ca/zoning.

The first draft of the new Zoning By-law is open for public feedback online until April 28, 2023. Public meetings are also being held to gather feedback:

In-person Public Information Centre

An in-person Public Information Centre will be held on April 19 from 4pm to 7pm at the Barrie City Hall Rotunda (70 Collier Street). The public is welcome to drop in to provide feedback. No pre-registration required

Virtual Public Information Centre

A virtual Public Information Centre will be held on April 20 from 2–3pm. Please register in advance to attend.

City staff will collect public and stakeholder feedback from the first draft of the Zoning By-law and incorporate this into a second draft, which is planned to be released in summer 2023.

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  • Don Komarechka commented  ·   ·  Report

    If we were allowed to have backyard hens a year ago, those of us that wanted this would be much more self-sufficient in our current pandemic, not having to leave home for essentials like eggs. I want to keep myself and my community healthy in times like this.

    I suppose the greater failing here is that a proposal voted up over a year ago has not seen any action by city council. How do we as citizens even have a voice if this entire platform is disregarded? I encourage everyone to write a letter to their councillors directly to push the issue: https://www.barrie.ca/City%20Hall/MayorCouncil/Pages/default.aspx

  • Muhammad commented  ·   ·  Report

    It's almost 1year now and no update on this idea from the City of Barrie.
    Any update in this suggestion?

  • Wasim commented  ·   ·  Report

    For almost a week I cannot find eggs And meat in supermarkets. If we can have back yard chicken , at least it can get us through time like this. Any one else facing the same issue ? Why city is dragging it for so long ??

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Report

    An allowance of up to three hens and no roosters is what many other cities have, and it works for them just fine. Chickens are a relatively quiet animal, quieter than a dog, and offer a range of benefits for their keepers. Not only do they provide fresh eggs, they also help gardeners manage unwanted pests. Chickens will even hunt mice. They can consume many kitchen scraps, reducing the volume of green bin waste, and their droppings would be just as compostable as any other organic waste by the city, rich in nitrogen which is vital to kickstart the composting process.

  • anonymous commented  ·   ·  Report

    I'm contacted the city about this... Hopefully we'll get some answers soon. This was posted as a suggestion almost 2 years ago & has been sitting "under review" since March, 2019.

  • m commented  ·   ·  Report

    Any word on this? I hope the city understands that the people who really want this are going to take care of their chickens, no questions. The city should provide education to new chicken owners. Like I said in a previous post if their concern is noise then they should have visited my backyard when there were dogs barking from three sides. A little bit of cooing is nothing.

  • Sue commented  ·   ·  Report

    It beyond time to move forward on this decision!

  • Lisa commented  ·   ·  Report

    I heard on the radio last week that this was being discussed by city council. Was there a decision made?

  • J commented  ·   ·  Report

    glad to see your comment Joy, I was thinking the same thing. how has this been ignored for so many years? There are obviously responsible people interested in this and I really don't see how so many towns in our country can have chickens, even Toronto, but we can't?

  • Wasim commented  ·   ·  Report

    Great idea joy , keep us posted , let us know what happened

  • Joy commented  ·   ·  Report

    Using this process has been very discouraging. Contacting ward councillors and letting them know that this has been ignored might be an option to move this along. I'm going to call the City to find out why this topic is not being addressed with so much interest.

  • Rod commented  ·   ·  Report

    I think it’s at the point now that we should just go ahead and do it. And as long as your neighbors don’t complain, it will be fine. As long as nobody goes crazy and gets too many birds we shouldn’t have any problems.

    Keep in mind it’s illegal to have more than 2 pets, and cats need to be on leash outside. I see plenty of people with 3 dogs and a cat and there are often cats loose in my garden, and I don’t see the city doing anything about that.

  • Wasim commented  ·   ·  Report

    We need to push it some
    How

  • Don Komarechka commented  ·   ·  Report

    I know that City Council takes summers off, but this really needs to be addressed in 2019.

  • Wasim commented  ·   ·  Report

    This is ridicules , been waiting for so long now???

  • Joy commented  ·   ·  Report

    Wondering why this request is seemingly being ignored? Its been "under review" since March without any updates from the City of Barrie.

  • Wasim commented  ·   ·  Report

    When we will get any update ??

  • anonymous commented  ·   ·  Report

    This thread was started March 14, 2018, it has been under review with no updates since March 27, 2019. Its been over a year without any mention of it going to counsellor.
    I think contacting your local counsellor and requesting it be on the agenda ASAP is a good idea.

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