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Public Hearing On Backyard Chickens This Week In Grand Rapids GRAND RAPIDS, MI (Michigan Radio) - Residents in Grand Rapids will get a chance this week to speak out on whether the city should allow backyard chicken farming.

Most cities in Michigan prohibit their residents from keeping chickens. But there's been a push in recent years to change that, as part of a growing local food movement.

Ann Arbor started allowing backyard chickens in 2008. Grand Rapids is considering similar rules. Residents would be allowed up to five hens, no roosters.

Jason Otto is part of a group that developed the proposed ordinance.

"People think in their head that we're going to have avian flu, we're going to have all this waste everywhere," Otto said at a city commission meeting last month. "That's from large-scale operations. This is small backyard operations."

But not everyone agrees. A representative of large scale chicken farms has warned the city of the risk of disease. And the Kent County Health Department also opposes backyard chickens.

A public hearing is scheduled for Tuesday night.

Contact Dustin Dwyer at dtdwyer@umich.edu.

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