Home to the roost
Toronto residents remodel their yards to house chickens as pilot project takes off in 4 wards
When Joe Mihevc moved into his Toronto home 25 years ago, he didn’t imagine building another residence on the property.
This past spring, though, he took to his back yard and constructed a house built for four: four egg-laying hens, that is. Mihevc and wife Rosalee Bender bought their 100-year-old house in the Bathurst St. and St. Clair Ave. W. neighbourhood in 1993 — a $375,000 purchase that kept them awake at night with its $200,000 mortgage. Their 175foot-long back garden features an abundance of plants and flowers, a children’s playhouse and now the sturdy chicken coop built to keep its feathered inhabitants comfortable safe from predators.
“One of my goals was to have the coop cost as little as possible,” says Mihevc, a Toronto city councillor for Ward 21-St. Paul’s. He used left-over lumber and kept expenses to about $150.
“I only had to buy wire for screening and built it in a few hours one morning.”
Backyard chickens are a phenomenon recently legalized in Toronto, where a pilot project, UrbanHensTO, is underway and runs until March 2, 2021in four city wards: Etobicoke-Lakeshore; Parkdale-High Park; St. Paul’s; and BeachesEast York.
Qualifying residents of those wards are able, after obtaining a permit (no cost) to have up to four hens (no roosters) as pets or for the purpose of laying eggs for their own use. Regulations vary but generally coops must provide each bird with at least four square feet of floor area, plus a minimum of 10 square feet of outdoor enclosure. Backyard farmers must register their hens and meet eligibility requirements, plus a bylaw officer’s inspection.
Mihevc appreciates the link of food to table.
“This narrows the gap between urban and rural,” he says. “People can see that food doesn’t always come in packages from Loblaws.” He is using scraps to help feed his family hens — Queenie, Lola, Ruby and Lizzie — and estimates that the cost for food can be as low as $10 a month, while shavings for bedding run another $20.
No stranger to construction, Mihevc renovated the ground floor of his own home years ago with bay windows overlooking the garden, making chicken watching easy and enjoyable. “Kids love to come and watch the chickens,” he laughs about neighbourhood youngsters’ fascination — especially if they find an egg.
“If 5-year-olds could vote, I’d be mayor,” says Mihevc.
In the Beaches, writer Trish Tervit is likewise taking advantage of the opportunity in the backyard of her two-storey semi-detached.
“I have a coop that was built for about $400 several years ago, before things were legalized,” she points out. “It’s a metre away from any border or fence and painted dark brown.
“Having backyard chickens doesn’t necessitate special accommodations to the home or garden. You’ll need storage space for food and shavings and if you want to have a light, an outdoor extension cord is fine.”
Can chickens withstand a GTA winter? The experienced chicken keepers say yes, and recommend bubble wrap for protection against wind. “A heat source is not necessary,” says Lorraine Johnson, author of the book City Farmer who conducts workshops for wouldbe chicken keepers. “But the birds need protection from wind and their water can’t be allowed to freeze.”
Other pets, say cats or dogs, can share their space with chickens, says Johnson, who notes that cats will let the hens know who’s boss while dogs will have to be watched as they may be inclined to attack.
Another consideration for Toronto backyard chicken farmers is making sure there is always a responsible person ensuring the birds are properly taken care of. “They have to be fed daily and locked in their coop before dusk when the predators come out,” Johnson points out. “When you are planning a vacation, that’s a factor.”
East of the GTA in Inverary, about 20 kilometres north of Kingston, Renay Loucaides — along with her 5-year-old son James — has had at least one of her hens living in her house. “After a fox attacked our flock, Goldie was missing. She showed up the next day standing outside the coop, missing her tail feathers and with a cut in her back,” says Loucaides.
“After I cleaned her wound with peroxide, I tried to put her back with the flock but they actually attacked her. Chickens reject (and sometimes kill) the weak or injured. So I brought her inside,” Loucaides explains.
How does that jibe with keeping a clean home? “When Goldie stayed in my house, I kept her mostly in the bathroom with newspapers lining the floor and she nested in a basket. Chickens poop a lot! So that’s the biggest problem. Changing newspapers and sanitizing the floor happened several times a day,” Loucaides says.
She emphasizes that predators are everywhere, including in the sky. “There are birds called ‘chicken hawks’ — named for a reason,” Loucaides notes of the three species (red-tailed, Cooper’s and sharp-shinned) who have earned the nickname.