Glenwood Family Is City's First Official Urban Chicken Owners

Jason Dammen admits he never envisioned the day he’d be raising chickens in his back yard.

“You can add this to the things I never thought I’d do,” Dammen said Saturday morning as he tended to his family’s five chickens, housed in a coop behind their Glenwood home on the 300 block of South Grove Street. “Here I am – an urban chicken farmer.”

Dammen and his wife Mindy, who reside with their five children and a pet dog, are the first Glenwood residents to obtain a permit to raise chickens under the city’s new “Chickens Within Corporate Limits” ordinance.

The controversial legislation was debated for months last year before being passed in October by a 3-2 vote of the city council.  

The ordinance requires chicken owners to get a permit and pay an annual fee to the city before they can construct a coop and start raising chickens. Coops must be placed in the back yard at least 80 feet from dwellings occupied by their neighbors. The 80-foot setback requirement can be waived if the owner of the chicken coop receives written consent from neighboring property owners affected. Under no circumstances will chickens be allowed to be kept within 20 feet of a dwelling.

Chicken owners will be allowed to have up to five hens on their property. Only “domestic type of fowl birds kept for their eggs and meat” will be allowed. Slaughtering of the birds will not be allowed and owners will be responsible for removing all chicken-related refuse, including spilled grain and manure, from their property at least once every 48 hours.

The Dammens obtained their “mixed breed” chickens from a acquaintance who lives out in the country. They expect to start getting eggs from the birds in a few months, but that’s not their primary reason for getting the chickens.

“For us, it’s definitely not for the cost-saving (on eggs),” Mindy Dammen said. “They’re just fun. The kids’ great-grandma and some of our friends have chickens, so we’re familiar with them. The kids enjoy coming out here and watching them.”

Each of the Dammen children have selected one of the chickens to name. One bird has already been dubbed Eagle Junior and their dad has jokingly suggested naming two others Extra Crispy and Honey BBQ.

Jason Dammen said he’s getting more enjoyment out of having the chickens than he expected.

“I was skeptical about having chickens at first, but now I find myself coming out to watch them,” he said.

Mindy Dammen said there are significant costs for Glenwood residents to who decide to have chickens, including a $25 building permit fee for the coop and an annual permit fee of $50, collected by the city. The Dammens have yet to determine how much they’ll be spending on feed, but were happy to find out their chickens enjoy eating table scraps.

Glenwood residents who want to have chickens can view the ordinance and download the permit application online via the “Departments - Code Enforcement” link on the city’s website. The completed application must be submitted to code enforcement officer Devan Hitchcock at the Glenwood Police Department. Before approving the permit, Hitchcock will make an onsite visit to make sure provisions of the ordinance are being met.

Mindy Dammen said she understands and supports the need for the city to regulate and monitor the chicken ordinance, but is hopeful future applicants will have a better experience going through the permit process than she and her husband did. She voiced some concerns earlier this month to Glenwood Mayor Brian Tackett and members of the city council about the handling of their permit.

“You can’t go about it (code enforcement) thinking everyone is doing this for the wrong reasons,” she said. “If this process is going to be successful, it has to be made easier.”

The mayor and council members thanked Mindy Dammen for bringing her concerns forward and assured her the process will get smoother once all the kinks are worked out.

The Dammens’ chicken coop meets the city’s 80-foot setback requirement, but Jason Dammen  said he and his wife still weighed in with their neighbors before getting their chickens.

“We jumped through every hoop and worked through the process,” he said. “We didn’t need signatures, but all the neighbors around us said if we needed their signature, they’d be glad to give it to us. We just didn’t want to do this without them knowing about it.”