Have a Hen!

Town Meeting approved a measure to allow homes with less than three acres to keep backyard hens.

Previously, the by-law allowed a home with at least three acres to keep one hen per acre on their lot.

There was an amendment presented at Town Meeting to allow two-family homes to have backyard chickens too if the owner of the house owns the hens, and that amendment passed.

The article was submitted by Hillary Stasonis, and its accumulated a grassroots campaign of support in addition to much debate.

"We have proposed no roosters... hens are very quiet on their own... the sound of 6 hens at close range is significantly quieter than weed wackers and cars," she said, adding that most backyard chickens have lower incidence of disease than mass-farmed chickens.

Other nearby towns, including Ipswich and Billerica, have passed by-laws easing chicken restrictions, Stasonis pointed out, and property values in those towns did not suffer.

Frank Macmillan proposed a referral to have selectmen form a committee to investigate the issue further and take health and zoning into consideration.

"I'm not opposed to chickens, just in the interest of full disclosure I'm a member of the health board," Macmillan said.

Stasonis responded that the Planning Board had already approved the proposal. And at Town Meeting, the Planning Board spoke in favor of it and against the idea to form a committee. Macmillan's proposal failed.

Another amendment was then added that implemented a half-acre requirement, but that amendment failed as well.