Salem Lakes is considering allowing the keeping of chickens on non-agricultural properties within the village.
The Salem Lakes Village Board on Monday discussed the possibilities.
Village President Diann Tesar said the matter is under consideration because residents have been asking about it.
“More and more people want chickens,” Tesar said.
Village staff gave the board copies of ordinances from several other municipalities that have laws regarding keeping poultry in residential areas. Several board members said they like the ordinance used in Black River Falls.
Some the components board members wanted to see in a local ordinance would be prohibiting roosters, requiring chicken coops, regulating where a coop can be located, limiting the number of chickens and prohibiting sale of eggs or chickens. A permit may also be needed.
Village administrator Patrick Casey said he would return with a draft ordinance for further discussion.
You need at least one rooster….but I agree, they are very annoying! You do need to allow at least one rooster though.
A chicken expert should chime in here, but my understanding is hens will still lay eggs — infertile eggs — without a rooster, that’s why many residential area ordinances ban roosters.
I have three neighbors who do have them now,(2+ years) and even a couple roosters….
If you want to keep Chickens do so. No one should be told what they can and cannot do in their own yard. As long as don’t bother the people who live directly next to you. Smell and noise are the only issues involved. Even hens can crow similar to Roosters when there isn’t a rooster in the hens coop/barn yard. Roosters are completely unnecessary. But if you want a rooster keep a rooster. I find the multitude of barking neighborhood dogs far more annoying than one or two roosters in my neighborhood. A rooster kept in a coop at night can be quite enough for a neighborhood if only let out during the noise regulated 7am start time like everything else. Instead of worrying about people keeping chickens, perhaps you should be cracking down on the obscene amount of fireworks being shot off every week.
How does the town board plan on having ordinances on having chickens when they dissolved their public safety and now have no one to enforce local ordinances anyway? I can just see Kenosha county sheriff dept going to complaints in regards to chickens! NOPE! I think the town board needs to address the more serious issues besides poultry.
Will this include Paddock Lake
@Penny: Salem Lakes cannot enact ordinances for Paddock Lake. They are separate municipalities.
You are correct Darren. No rooster means the eggs are unfertile but the chickens will still lay eggs. Fresh eggs are much better than what you buy in the store. This is why people raise chickens…for the eggs and sometimes the meat. Towns typically don’t like roosters because of the crowing. That can be annoying to neighbors who live in close quarters of each other.
Darren, to answer you and Penny, the Village of Paddock Lake already has an ordinance that regulates chickens. Ordinance 19.06 allows chickens on properties that have the ability to keep the chickens, cages or pens at least 125 feet from the boundaries of the property. Applicants must also obtain from the Village a license to keep chickens.