Tewksbury Eases Rules For Keeping Chickens

TEWKSBURY, MA -- And you thought Tewksbury was becoming too much like a city. The town's Board of Health changed regulations last month that will make it easier for people to keep chickens. The new rules only require backyard hens to be registered, in much the same way a resident would register a dog.

Under the old rules, people who wanted to keep chickens for fresh eggs or chicken had to obtain a permit. That discouraged a lot of residents from keeping chickens, or at least publicly admitting to town officials that they were keeping hens (according to social media posts, a lot of Tewksbury residents were keeping "felonious chickens").

Chicken owners need to submit a plot plan and disposal plan and pay a one-time fee. Registrations do not expire. The new rules allow residents to keep up to 12 hens. The average backyard hen lays about five eggs per week, meaning a Tewksbury resident with the maximum number could make about 20 omelettes each and every week.

Keeping backyard chickens in suburban and even urban settings has taken off in popularity in the past five years. The USDA doesn't keep stats on small-scale farming but says anecdotal evidence suggests chicken-keeping has been rising in popularity for the past decade. Not coinicidentally, a spike in reported salmonella infections has been linked to the trend by the USDA.

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Photo by Dave Copeland.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).