MANKATO — In Mankato, the chicken regulations have been pretty simple for nearly a century. In areas zoned residential — or anything else other than agricultural — live chickens can’t be kept. It’s the same prohibition as for cattle, horses, goats, pigs “and all other animals and feathered fowl, except dogs and cats … .”
But in the past decade, more and more cities have given residents permission to raise chickens in their backyards, with rules ranging from broadly lenient to fairly strict. Mankato City Manager Susan Arnrtz explored at chicken rules across 34 Minnesota municipalities to help educate the City Council.
“I’ve read more city codes on this topic than I have on any other in my career,” Arntz said Tuesday night.
Here’s what she found.
Roosterism
If fowl could file a gender discrimination lawsuit, the roosters might be looking for lawyers. Virtually all of the 34 cities Arntz studied ban roosters even while welcoming hens. Shoreview, Farmington and Woodbury allow the noisy males only on lots of 2 acres or more. Minneapolis permits roosters, but only with the consent of neighbors.
All cities in the survey limit the number of hens in any single backyard. Most (17 cities) set the maximum at six, but two cities keep it at three hens.
Eagle Lake has one of the highest limits at eight, but only if 75% of adjacent property owners give their OK. A flock of up to 15 is possible in St. Paul with neighbors’ approval. Minneapolis has a tiered permit system that allows for as many as 30 in some circumstances.
Setbacks, fees and schooling
Cities almost always tightly define how close a chicken coop or chicken run can come to a neighboring property. Farmington forces chickens to be kept at least 60 feet from property lines and 300 feet from the closest neighboring home. Lake Crystal, which allows up to four hens, is not as restrictive as most, permitting the chickens to be within 5 feet of property lines. But the birds must have leg bands so they can be identified if they stray outside their allotted territory.
Crystal specifically requires a coop to be closer to the chicken owner’s house than to any neighboring home. And in Hopkins, any chicken permit is automatically rescinded if the permit holder stops living on the property.
Folks hoping backyard chickens will mean cheap eggs sometimes find any savings offset by steep municipal fees. Hopkins charges $150 for a chicken-keeping permit, and Coon Rapids, Cottage Grove and Lakeville also have permits that cost $100 or more. Duluth and Moorhead charge just $12 and $10, and St. Peter imposes only $5 for annual permit renewals after charging $50 for the initial permit. Six Twin Cities suburbs charge nothing because they don’t require a permit.
Most cities set standards for chicken structures, including rodent-proof food containers. They typically also allow for permits to be pulled if the chicken noise or chicken odor is deemed a nuisance. In at least two places — Cottage Grove and Minneapolis — completion of a “poultry keeping course” is required before a permit is granted.