The Town of South Bruce Peninsula will permit residents to have backyard chickens this summer.
The Municipality held a public meeting this week on the matter, and council was supportive of introducing backyard poultry.
Those opposed mostly raised concerns about chickens wandering onto neighbours yards or the smell of manure.
Resident Amy Hepburn, who was also in favour of the proposal, said those concerns could be managed.
"Fencing can easily be put up on property lines and chickens, all their flight feathers can be snipped down, completely harm-free," she told council. "In regards to the waste, chicken waste is very high in nitrogen so it's very good for gardening. Maybe that can be brought upon where we have drop-off days where any chicken farmers are able to collect a pile of their waste and take it to that drop-off for more use around the town."
Mayor Jay Kirkland noted council had just approved a new community garden at the Sauble Beach Community centre, and that could be one of the possible manure drop-off locations.
Council directed staff to bring back an amendment to the zoning by-law for its next meeting that will permit residents to have backyard poultry. The by-law includes a requirement that an enclosure must be built to keep them in, that is no bigger than 10 square metres.
Residents would be allowed six to 10 chickens.
Town Clerk Angie Cathrae said this is not a trial run, so residents will need to be responsible, otherwise more regulations will follow.
"If we receive a tremendous amount of substantiated complaints, then staff would come back to council with a licensing and regulating by-law," she said. "Once the poultry is in the by-law, we're not looking at taking it out. So we're not looking at it like a trial... we're saying lets hope people take care of their pets that are chickens."
The backyard chicken by-law will return to council at the next meeting for final approval.