Birds of a feather
Chicken ordinances have backyard farmers flocking to area
If a tiny flock of friendly hens -- and the fresh eggs that come with them -- sounds like the perfect addition to your family, you’re in luck.
Lodi passed an ordinance allowing residents to keep backyard hens, quails and ducks in 2015. Galt followed suit in 2016, welcoming hens to the city. And more recently, Stockton has also declared itself a bird-friendly city.
And chickens have been allowed in the unincorporated county for much longer.
That’s a bonus for local residents like Cherie Sintes-Glover, who has been a chicken enthusiast since childhood, despite one obstacle.
“When I was little, my grandparents had chickens. They actually had really mean chickens,” she said with a laugh.
Sintes-Glover recalled visiting her grandparents’ home in the mountains. The chicken coop was by her grandfather’s woodshop, she said.
“I can still remember the smell of the pine shavings,” she said.
She spent a lot of time in the mostly futile pursuit of befriending the flock.
“I decided that someday, when I was a grown-up, I was going to have chickens of my own and they were going to be nice chickens,” she said.
When her son was 3 years old, that childhood goal came true. Her family moved somewhere with a little more space, and she started researching, eventually landing on the Poulty Information Exchange, an online bulletin board. She also bought
plenty of books on the birds.
Soon, she was raising her own backyard flock. Before long, she was mentoring people on the board, and she became a chicken consultant.
Her son joined 4-H, and began showing chickens. That meant he -- and Sintes-Glover -- were soon learning about purebred chicken breeds.
“I kind of got to live a little vicariously through my son’s experiences,” she said.
Sintes-Glover offers advice and information for fellow hen-lovers on her website, www.chickensforeggs.com, and hosts classes via Zoom. (She also gives classes through Robinson’s Feed Co. when the area is not in a pandemic.)
She invites anyone interested in raising chickens to register for her free Chicken 101 classes, which are about half an hour. More advanced and indepth classes are offered at a reasonable fee.
Last fall, Stockton joined its neighbors and passed an ordinance allowing hens -- as well as ducks and bee hives -- within city limits. Residents can also sell excess produce from their backyard gardens or fruit trees.
“This is a great example of where policy and planning is a call-to-action that helps to address some of our basic nutritional needs and spur the local economy at a time when both are really needed,” Stephanie Ocasio, Stockton’s assistant director of community development, said in a press release in September 2020.
Kitty Ruhstaller, a new Stockton resident who was an advocate for the new ordinance, told the Stockton Record she was thrilled. Urban farming isn’t just a personal passion, she said -- it’s good for the environment and people’s health. Plus, it is a learning opportunity for her grandchildren, she told the Stockton-based newspaper.
“I think it’s important, first of all, in education; certainly the youngsters need to know where (food) comes from,” she said.
Anyone raising backyard chickens should also expect them to become part of the “pet family,” Sintes-Glover said. You’ll end up spending a lot of time with them, and laying hens can get quite friendly.
“And you get fresh eggs,” she said. “Extra bonus!”