By Paul Waldmiller
Did you know that in some areas and communities of Florida, you are allowed to raise chickens? In Southwest Florida in 2011, county commissioners allowed chickens in the City of Bonita Springs. Residents are allowed to apply for a permit to raise and keep up to four chickens per single-family property. If you do keep chickens, the chicken coop must maintain a 20-foot distance from their neighbors to keep minimal contact with the animals. Started as an experiment, this writer has not been able to find many complaints regarding chickens in the Bonita Springs Area. There are to be sure some who will complain about seeing the birds, making their little noise and smelling their waste may be used in compost. For decades, there have been complaints in Los Angeles County of residents who have chickens in their front and back yards, but L.A. has had a longtime ordinance against it. Of course, that ordinance is rarely if ever enforced due to the power of the ethnic lobby groups and the sheer numbers of Mexicans living there.
With the recent Wuhan (Corona-19) Virus epidemic causing great shortages of food, some residents of South West Florida are asking why they (those outside the City of Bonita Springs) cannot also raise chickens for personal use. When the food hoarding actually began in March 2020, one of the first items to disappear from the store shelves were eggs. The reasoning behind this? People began hoarding all kinds of food including chicken eggs. If there is one kind of versatile food and ease of cooking, it is certainly chicken eggs.
Some Floridians are now looking for ways they can survive the next crisis. We have all come to realize just how fragile our food supply is. Alternative ways of sourcing for food is now being considered. The controversy over whether to allow the raising of chickens in the backyards of residents will continue. But at least in South West Florida, it looks like an idea whose time has come.