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OGDEN — The debate over the chicken vs. the egg and what came first might continue endlessly, but hen-loving adherents in Ogden know one thing's for sure: neither will happen on their property without a new ordinance from the city council.
The Ogden Chicken Alliance is stumping to have backyard chickens allowed in their city, heading out to farmers markets and other sites to clear up what they say are misconceptions.
"The main ones are noise. People are afraid they're noisy, which is not true. Roosters are noisy, but we really don't want roosters — we want hens," said Liz Christiansen of the Ogden Chicken Alliance. "People think they're dirty and that they attract rodents. All food left out in the yard is going to attract rodents, whether it's dog food or cat food or wild bird seed."
Christiansen's idea of a good number of hens per residence, or the yard of the residence, would be "three or four."
"There would be less droppings than an average-size dog," she said.
What the alliance members are hoping for is something similar to what just took place in Roy, where an ordinance allowing backyard chickens recently passed. Christiansen said she and her husband have been in contact with Ogden councilman Luis Lopez in hopes of eventually getting a measure before the city's governing body.
If it happens at all, a new ordinance will likely not include a provision for roosters. And that's just fine with Christiansen, who says that hens don't cause the kind of noise that their male counterparts do.
"Hens sleep all through the night. As soon as the sun goes down, they get in their coops where they are all night quietly," she said. "The only time they make a little noise is when they're actually laying an egg during the day and it's just a little clucking noise to announce to the world, 'I've laid my egg.'"
Christiansen is quick to point out that roosters are not necessary for hens to produce eggs.
And it's the eggs that she wants.
"I'm a vegetarian and eggs are a really good source of protein. To know where they're coming from, to know what I'm feeding my chickens — I'm not getting farm eggs and there's half the cholesterol in a backyard-chicken egg and twice the vitamins," she said.
The advent of the Ogden Chicken Alliance came about a few months ago when Christiansen and her husband posted their group on Facebook and started setting up monthly meetings at a local coffee shop.
The group has also set up a page on GoFundMe in hopes of covering the cost of booths at farmers markets, where they deliver their message.
"We want chickens to be legal in Ogden," Christiansen said. "We want to have chickens in our own yards without penalties."
