Orange County chicken program crosses the road despite objections

Orange County joined the flock of local governments allowing backyard chickens with commissioners voting unanimously Tuesday to adopt a program.

Neighbors won’t have veto power, but they’re supposed to get notice if a coop is going up next door.

The proposal got a boost from a dozen chicken advocates, most wearing yellow stickers or T-shirts bearing a silhouette of a hen.

They extolled the joy of free, fresh eggs then applauded after the board vote, which followed a two-hour discussion of chicken pros and cons.

Eric Rollings, who keeps four hens at his home in Orlando, argued against requiring a permit applicant to get the neighbors’ permission.

“I think some neighbors might have a grudge,” he said. “Then it becomes a question of what came first: the chicken or the neighbor.”

His own hens are named Blanche, Dorothy, Rose and Sophia, after the title characters in “The Golden Girls,” a sitcom about aging women.

Rollings ended his appeal to the board with another pun: “For clucks sakes, let’s pass this today!”

Commissioners had considered creating a chicken program six times since 2013, but decided against it each time.

Chickens were restricted in the county to areas zoned for agriculture.

But many Central Florida governments allow residents to keep small flocks of chickens in their backyards, including Orlando, which has issued 75 permits. Others include cities of Longwood, Maitland, Winter Park and Winter Garden and neighboring counties of Lake, Osceola and Seminole.

Orange County’s ordinance, which goes into effect Nov. 1, requires a $57 permit and limits the number of permits countywide to 130.

A homeowner can keep no more than four hens — roosters are not needed to make an egg and aren’t

allowed under program rules — and the measure forbids backyard chicken owners from selling their

chickens, the eggs, feathers or manure. They also may not breed or slaughter their flocks.

Not everyone was in favor of chickens.

Amy Langbein gathered more than 180 signatures against the proposal on change.org, an electronic petition site.

Citing her experience with a neighbor’s illegal flock, she urged the board to reject the measure. “In addition to constant clucking, we were bombarded with odors, flies and started getting rats in our yard, on our porch and in our garage,” she said. “Chickens are the very definition of a nuisance animal.”

Others disputed her experience. “I’ve had neighbors with Pomeranian dogs before, a much bigger [noise] issue,” one chicken supporter said.

The program rules require prospective backyard chicken farmers to take a University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences’ class, which covers topics ranging from caring for baby chickens to poultry diseases. It aims to teach people how to keep both their flock and themselves healthy.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, keeping chickens can be tricky.

According to the CDC, “Backyard poultry, like chicken and ducks, can carry Salmonella germs even if they look healthy and clean.”