Back yard chickens may come home to roost

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The Long Grove Planning Commission is reviewing a citizen's proposal which would make it the first Lake County municipality to permit chickens to be kept in a residential area. | File photo

Updated: November 26, 2011 12:31AM

ROUND LAKE BEACH — The possibility that Long Grove may allow chickens to be raised in residents’ backyards has prompted a Round Lake area group to seek the same.

Petitions are being circulated in the Round Lake area to allow residents to have chickens, according to Ed Fuhrmann of Round Lake Beach, a prime mover for the change.

On Sept. 17, nearly 40 people attended a Backyard Chicken Community Awareness meeting at the Robert W. Rolek Community Center in Round Lake to lend their support for the five Round Lake area villages — Round Lake, Round Lake Beach, Round Lake Park, Round Lake Heights and Hainesville — to legalize the raising of chickens in backyards.

“Raising chickens in the backyard is getting more and more popular across the country,” said Fuhrmann, a retired Navy petty officer who teaches electronics at Naval Station Great Lakes.

“There’s a misconception about chickens being dirty and smelly,” he said, pointing out Chicago has long had the practice of raising chickens, and Evanston officials recently adopted an ordinance in favor of it.

The Long Grove Planning Commission on Oct. 4 will review a proposal that would allow chickens to be raised in village backyards.

If winning the commission’s nod and approved by the Village Board, the community will become the first Lake County municipality to permit chickens to be kept in a residential area, a change that appears to be gathering momentum across the nation.

The scheduled review follows a recent public hearing conducted by the plan commission at which an overwhelming majority of the 30 residents attending spoke in favor of the proposal.

“I’m confident that something will be approved in some shape or form,” said Long Grove Village Planner Jim Hogue.

John Emrich of Long Grove, owner of Backyard Chicken Run, who attended the first crucial meeting in his village for the change, said he supplies feed and other products to chicken-keepers in Chicago. His business, he said, is growing rapidly.

Fuhrmann couldn’t speak enough of the merits of keeping chickens in the backyard, including providing fresh, more nutritious and safer eggs than store-bought.

Pointing to frequent food recalls, Fuhrmann said: “The system we depend on for food safety is not always working.”

In this recessionary economy, he said more people are interested in raising their own food.

While agreeing the initial cost of raising your own chickens — including the need of a coop and a fence, plus feed and the upkeep — could be high, he said the cost would be offset by the less use of fertilizer, insecticide and herbicide on lawns.

“Chickens will eat the bugs. The waste is an excellent fertilizer and makes good compost,” said an enthusiastic Fuhrmann.

But nothing beats fresh eggs from the back yard, he stressed.

What about a rooster crowing before sunrise and waking up your neighbors?

“No roosters!” he said, with no apology to the hens. In any event, clucking hens are quieter than barking dogs.

Fuhrmann said he had spoken to village officials and trustees in the Round Lake area about legalizing the issue.

“They were cool to the idea because they didn’t want to be the first to allow it,” he said.

With Long Grove about to possibly blaze the trail, he is hopeful that they’ll go along with the idea.