A line recently greeted Jessica Warkentin at Tractor Supply. Warkentin showed up, planning to expand her family’s very small flock of backyard chickens in Newton, which a neighbor gifted them in November. “We said if they survived the winter, we were going to get chicks,” she said. “Last week, we spent several days calling stores to see when their chickens got in.”
Tractor supply promised chicks at noon for sale. She arrived at 11:30 a.m. to be the fourth in line. She said one woman had been waiting since 9:30 a.m. While plenty of people are starting backyard flocks in Harvey County, city rules vary depending on where you live. Both Newton and Halstead allow up to 12 chickens with the proper coop and issue permits. In total, Newton had 12 active permits. Halstead had seven. There are more chicken flocks on the down low, however. Harvey County Now sought chicken permits, looking for contacts, after a number of people declined to speak to not draw attention to their chickens. Usually, most neighbor complaints, from this reporter’s experience covering local government, come from keeping roosters. Sedgwick limits the number of chickens to six and doesn’t issue permits. Hesston allows eight chickens in a flock on lots smaller than 10,000 square feet. It allows an additional chicken for every 1,000 extra square feet on larger lots. North Newton allows for birds but has no ordinance. “We encourage residents to be responsible and try to keep them in a fence and preferably only one rooster,” City Clerk Pat Redding stated. “So far, we haven’t had issues that require us to pass an ordinance.”
Source: Harvey County Now
