Cool CHICKS for Farmers Branch

Update: Thanks for stopping by, but this was the start of it all. You can read the OUTCOME of chickens in Farmers Branch HERE. 

Every time I tell someone that chickens aren’t allowed in Farmers Branch, I get the logical response: BUT THERE’S ‘FARM’ IN FARMERS BRANCH. Tell me about it! Those bad pet owners ruined it for me back in 2004! I want hens for their eggs. I’ve been trying my best to sway the council to rewrite the ordinance to allow this. I’ve learned a lot about how my city runs and who is involved. I’ve enjoyed the it despite the slow process.

Logo for the Front of T-shirts

IT’S ON THE AGENDA: I think it’s been about 4 months since I first wrote all of my council members. It just might be my lack of education of the system as why it has taken this long to get on the agenda. What’s more important than chickens? I put in a formal request to add chickens on the agenda two months ago, and it will be finally discussed on Tuesday.  YEA, but no congrats yet, please. This doesn’t mean much as I don’t think a decision will be made Tuesday.

I gave them lots of information to help them come to a positive solution: I completed a 20 person survey of my neighbors on their opinion of chickens. I concluded that most people just aren’t educated on raising chickens other than putting it fork to mouth, and anybody that had chickens before was all for it. I gave them Mark Glover’s Presentation to Flower Mound City Council members. He had created an awesome presentation with tons of research from how noisy they are to how much waste they produced. (Flower Mound is rewriting their ordinance = tiny bit of hope) If I have to create a presentation, I will use quite a bit of it. I have also compiled a spreadsheet of almost every city’s ordinance in the DFW metroplex. I also gave them my most popular post yet: I learned everything I know about chickens at the grocery store.

SHIRTS! That’s right, do you think I’d let a design opportunity pass me by? My neighbor and I wore them to a city function and received positive feedback. My neighbor Yvette, (her and her husband are my ‘neighbor knowledge’) has been pretty awesome supporting the cause and helping me. I’m attending the study session for the council meeting and you better believe I’ll be sporting the t-shirts.

I’ve received a few requests for shirts (thank you!), but alas I don’t have anymore. I’ll be making t-shirts again if we decide to take this back to council.

Front and back of T-shirts

In conclusion, I’m just a happy Farmers Branch Chick trying to get my city to rewrite the city ordinance so I can raise a small flock of hens. CHICKENS are awesome! I hope they got the message! (I’ll be updating this post as things change)

POST AGENDA DISCUSSION: Well, the chickens got some laughs in the study session. I was feeling a little down when only two council members spoke with something positive say.

I not only talked my mom in to coming to support me, but I made her wear a shirt. Everyone loved the shirts, so I didn’t feel bad for her.

It was the longest council meeting! ok, maybe it was just because I said I wanted to speak about the chickens and I was the last on the agenda. My biggest fear I think is public speaking. My neighbor and another woman spoke after I did. There was both positive and negative things about allowing chickens. How do you regulate it without spending the city’s money or adding to the city’s plate? I get that. It’s always the bad pet owners who ruin it, how do you control this? DISCUSSION CONCLUSION: When it came time to vote, it was 3 to 2 positive vote for us to gather more research and proceed. I received praise for my mini presentation from the city manager and a councilman asked me for a shirt for his wife.

Looks like I have tons of researching to do! Our next presentation will be in June.

TO BE CONTINUED…