Katie Whalen’s backyard in the Florida city of Port St Lucie is testament to her journey towards a life of self-sufficiency. She grows mangoes, avocados, starfruit, jackfruit and coconuts. She is cultivating a tropical tree spinach known as chaya.
What she really wants, however, is a chicken coop and hens to provide eggs that are becoming increasingly unaffordable in stores. As bird flu worsens across the US and commercial suppliers struggle to keep up with demand, the keeping of fowl and production of eggs in home environments, has surged in popularity, and Whalen is keen to join the revolution.
Nationwide, an estimated 84 million chickens are kept privately, broadly similar to the numbers of cats and dogs kept as pets.
“[It’s] the news reports of bird flu, the scarcity of eggs, the high cost, really,” she said. “I’ve been wanting for a while to get chickens because I’m into gardening and the whole permaculture stuff that I’m learning about. And obviously chickens are very beneficial in that system.”
What is stalling Whalen, and allowing others to press ahead, is Florida’s patchwork of often contradictory laws and ordinances over exactly who can, or cannot, keep fowl in their backyard.
Clermont, a city 20 miles (32km) west of Orlando, responded to the egg crisis last week by passing a new law that allows residents to keep up to five hens in properly constructed coops. Roosters are forbidden, and homeowners must apply to the city for a permit.
For residents like Whalen in Port St Lucie on Florida’s Atlantic coast, raising fowl is a hard no. Officials insist they don’t have enough code enforcement officers to make inspections or otherwise regulate the cottage industry.
“Raising chickens has been determined to be incompatible with the city’s design and a population that now surpasses 250,000,” it said in a statement.
Yet in unincorporated St Lucie county, a formal Backyard Chicken Program, approved in 2021 at the height of the Covid pandemic, is thriving. Dozens of residents signed up and numerous families are enjoying an unlimited supply of eggs, strictly for their “own personal use” per the ordinance.
Treasure Coast Newspapers conducted its own survey of municipalities and counties mostly along Florida’s east coast and inland, and found a wide disparity in regulations. In general, residents of cities are generally more likely to be prohibited from keeping chickens, while rural areas have looser rules.
Such inconsistency prompted Whalen to launch a petition to persuade Port St Lucie commissioners to change their mind, pointing out the economic and environmental benefits of home chicken farming, as well as increasing food security.
“A lot of this started around Covid times, with homesteading, growing an edible landscape and having a garden in your yard, because people saw how fragile our food system is with the just-in-time food supply where stores only keep three days’ worth,” she said.
“That was a big awakening for people. Now you see recent events, not just in our area but across the US, where some people can’t even get a hold of a carton of eggs. I feel like people want to be able to have a more self-sufficient [life]style where they’re not necessarily fully reliant on outside sources.”
The nearest thing the US has to an organization for backyard chicken farmers is the American Poultry Association (APA), which was established for breeders and those who want to show their animals, but has increasingly become a support group for a new generation of enthusiasts.
“When Covid hit there were so many folks rushing out to get their own chickens thinking it would be cool and cheaper to just have their own, [but] they were finding out that it’s not as easy as one thinks, especially if you have never had them before,” said Norma Padgett, the APA’s president.
“The birds were cheap, but the cost to build a safe pen, feed costs and the issue with dealing with sickness, disease or mites on the birds – they found out it was more work than they expected, and not as cheap.”
Those eager to jump in, Padgett said, found the cost of construction materials, such as timber and chicken wire, had also soared. Instead of the free supply they expected, newcomers were faced with the concept of the $1,000 egg, their average combined outlay before the first one is ever laid.
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“I would tell them to speak to someone who raises them now,” she said.
“Having a safe coop is one big thing – predators are everywhere. For feed, I suggest they go to the local feed store and get a layer-type feed with the essential vitamins and minerals. It can be easy to get started, but chicks take up to a year sometimes before the chicken begins to lay an egg.”
Padgett said she would also like to see consistency in chicken-keeping laws, and better education for those who want to get involved.
“I know of a few schools that have started keeping smaller livestock for the kids. So many children have never seen a chicken up close, or even from a distance, and introducing livestock of any kind to a child is something I’ve always felt was important,” she said.
“It teaches them where their food comes from. I’ve had adults ask me about eggs, and where they come from. They somehow think they just come from the store magically.”
Whalen said she was optimistic that her city commissioners would be open to reconsidering.
“I’m still trying to raise awareness and get other locals on board, not as a protest or demonstration, just to bring more awareness,” she said.
“There are people here in Port St Lucie that keep chickens who have messaged me anonymously, showing me their coops and saying things like: ‘oh, my neighbors don’t mind’ or ‘when we have people over their kids love it’, so they don’t really have issues in their neighborhoods. It’s working out.
“So you know it can be done in a city environment. We’re not going to have chickens roaming around the streets.”
