Six chickens, no permit Six chickens, no permit (December 30, 2005)

As many as six hens per household will be able to live in a Pleasanton resident's back yard and owners will no longer have to apply for a "conditional use" permit as soon as City Council approves the Planning Commission's Dec. 14 decision.

The Commissioners unanimously agreed that permits will no longer be necessary for six or fewer birds. Previously existing flocks will be ... grandfeathered ... in.

The amended ordinance allows backyard hens only, though. No crowing roosters.

The Commissioners had originally been considering four hens, not six, but Abbie 4-H youth poultry leader Analee Sanborn pointed out how some families have three children and each child keeps a minimum of two birds--just in case, at Fair-time, one hen is molting and unattractive.

Complaints about cackling will get the same response as 'barking dog' complaints, said animal control officer Roy Ficken, who added that the decibel level of a chicken's cluck doesn't even move the needle on the meter.

China's Xinhua News Agency reports that in an effort to arrest the spread of bird flu, China will vaccinate all 14-billion of its chickens, geese and ducks against the virus. If Avian flu becomes an issue in this country, the planners agreed that Pleasanton chickens will have to be inoculated.

Right now, 18 Pleasanton 4-Hers with Abbie 4-H are raising 20 chickens inside the city limits. Poultry adviser Joyce Sanborn said there will be quite a few more being raised as it gets closer to Fair time. -by Carol Bogart

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