Keeping a small flock of hens in a residential backyard has become one of the more conspicuous agricultural movements in contemporary Canadian neighbourhoods, and on many suburban streets a low clucking now drifts over the fences at dawn. While the controversy continues over whether this development represents a healthy return to homegrown, sustainable food or the unwelcome arrival of a barnyard nuisance in the suburbs, a great many municipal councils are left wondering how they might responsibly regulate the coops that are appearing throughout their communities.

Marta Boivin, a bylaw officer in the town of Elmridge, recently found that several residents had built coops without any permit, and that one household's rooster had been crowing well before sunrise to the annoyance of the whole block. Uncertain how to proceed, Boivin raised the issue at a council staff meeting, discovered that officers in neighbouring towns faced the identical dilemma, and now the council is conferring about whether to set clear rules for keeping hens in residential yards.