Will Chickens Come Home To Roost in Crystal Lake?

Representatives and supporters of Citizens for Chickens in Crystal Lake appealed to City Council members July 5 to allow residents to keep hens on their property. 

Erik Blome said the hens provide food for the families that raise them, are environmentally helpful because they eat Japanese beetles, make great pets, and buying supplies to house and feed them helps the economy. 

“We should have the right to grow our own food,” he said. 

His wife, Charlotte, also addressed council members, saying the chickens are her pets that she has raised from eggs. They provide food and companionship, and in this stressed economy, the eggs gathered from her four hens help the family budget. 

Last month the city shut down the Blome’s “backyard chicken” farm, which consisted of four hens housed in the garage of their Ash Street home. Considered farm animals, the Blomes were told they were in violation of a city code prohibiting them on residential property. 

The Blomes found a temporary home for their pets, but want to get them back. They are circulating a petition to allow hens as pets — not farm animals — back into Crystal Lake homes as they commonly were allowed years ago, mainly as a source of food.

Anna Evans of Woodstock told council members that there is a “very strong interest in this issue in this county,” as the economy forces people to look at ways to use their properties for growing food. 

She’s involved in a new group called Backyard Chickens for McHenry County, which advocates and supports people responsibly owning chickens in backyard pens. 

She hopes the county will consider changing some of its codes to allow backyard chickens. 

Ingrid Carlino, a neighbor of the Blome’s, said that while she has no chickens nor necessarily wants any, she appreciates the fresh eggs that might appear at farmers markets or be sold by neighbors if the city would allow the practice. 

She pointed to local eggs as a safe and affordable food source in times of economic distress. 

The city council unanimously agreed to take a look at the existing code and bring it up for discussion at a later date. 

Blome took issue with the city handing his 13-year-old son the citation when neither parent was at home. 

“He was in tears,” Blome said. “You should give that to an adult, not a child.” 

There are numerous grassroots organizations pushing for backyard chickens in residential areas, and several cities have passed ordinances allowing them, Blome said. 

Chicago, Evanston, Elgin, Los Angeles, Calif., and Ann Arbor, Mich., are just a few that have done so recently.   

Blome said people have misconceptions about backyard chickens. He said they are clean and quiet animals that were found in many Crystal Lake households years ago as a matter of course. 

“People forget that before suburbia, almost everyone had chickens right here in Crystal Lake,” he said.