Currently in New Castle County, Delaware you can only raise chickens in your backyard if you have more than 1 acre of property. Mr. William Tansey has introduced Ordinance 09-974 (.pdf link) to ease restrictions on raising chickens in backyards of New Castle County. His reasonable change allows residents to raise up to 4 hens (no roosters) on property with at least 0.5 acres.The council is set to vote on this ordinance change on Tuesday, Sept 8th, but many are already coming out against. We must change their minds. Please help me and your New Castle County neighbors by contacting your New Castle County Council member (click on their picture for contact info) by phone or e-mail today to tell them that you would like them to support this change.
I have included the e-mail that I am sending to every council member and their legislative aids below. I myself live in the 2nd district. Please feel free to use or modify my letter as needed.
Dear Councilmember (insert member name here),
Mr. William Tansey has introduced Ordinance 09-974 to ease restrictions on raising chickens in backyards of New Castle County. His reasonable change allows residents to raise up to 4 hens (no roosters) on property with at least 0.5 acres. I stand in full support of this reasonable rule regarding raising chickens in a suburban environment and I hope that you will support this change by voting for it at the next council meeting on September 8th.
In a state on the Delmarva peninsula, historically known for raising poultry, it is unfortunate that residents of New Castle County currently have such a restrictive ordinance preventing them from participating in the chicken raising tradition and allowing them to grow some of their own food. New Castle County also has the chance to join other forward looking communities by your support of an easing of this restriction.
I urge you to support ordinance 09-074 to allow the raising of up to 4 hens on property with more than 0.5 acres. I will look forward to your response on this matter.
Sincerely,
Richard Koehler
New Castle County Constituent
Comment if you send an e-mail or make a phone call. I would really like to get this passed, for the reasons stated in the letter above.Let Delawareans have their Blue Hens!
List of council members, e-mail, office phone, legislative aids, e-mail and phone (all 302 area code below).
| Council District | Name | Office Phone | |
| Council President | Paul G. Clark | pgclark@nccde.org | 395-8340 |
| CP Legislative Aid | Lynne Phifer | LPhifer@nccde.org | 395-8360 |
| 1st District | Joseph Reda | jmreda@nccde.org | 395-8341 |
| 1st Legislative Aid | Christine Roberts | croberts@nccde.org | 395-8361 |
| 2nd District | Robert S. Weiner | rsweiner@nccde.org | 395-8342 |
| 2nd Legislative Aid | Louis Hinkle | lhinkle@nccde.org | 395-8362 |
| 3rd District | William Tansey | wtansey@nccde.org | 395-8363 |
| 3rd Legislative Aid | Nellie Manlove | nmanlove@nccde.org | 395-8363 |
| 4th District | Penrose Hollins | phollins@nccde.org | 395-8344 |
| 4th Legislative Aid | Nique Traylor | ntraylor@nccde.org | 395-8364 |
| 5th District | Lisa Diller | ediller@nccde.org | 395-8345 |
| 5th Legislative Aid | Renee Bensley | rbensley@nccde.org | 395-8365 |
| 6th District | William Powers | wepowersjr@nccde.org | 395-8346 |
| 6th Legislative Aid | Ruby Dillmore | rdillmore@nccde.org | 395-8366 |
| 7th District | George Smiley | gsmiley@nccde.org | 395-8347 |
| 7th Legislative Aid | Tara Finnigan | tfinnigan@nccde.org | 395-8367 |
| 8th District | John Cartier | jjcartier@nccde.org | 395-8348 |
| 8th Legislative Aid | Christina Bloemendaal | ctbloemendaal@nccde.org | 395-8368 |
| 9th District | Timothy Sheldon | tpsheldon@nccde.org | 395-8349 |
| 9th Legislative Aid | Stephanie Rizzo | 395-8369 | |
| 10th District | Jea P. Street | jpstreet@nccde.org | 395-8350 |
| 10th Legislative Aid | Charneece Jackson | cljackson@nccde.org | 395-8370 |
| 11th District | David Tackett | dltackett@nccde.org | 395-8351 |
| 11th Legislative Aid | Susanne Hussey | shussey@nccde.org | 395-8371 |
| 12th District | Bill Bell | jwbell@nccde.org | 395-8352 |
| 12th Legislative Aid | Joseph A. Cochran | jacochran@nccde.org | 395-8372 |
6 comments:
I have received a response from Councilmember Tansey's office that the ordinance change vote will be postponed to Sept 22. We still need to keep the pressure on.
Other council members have responded that they do not want to vote for the ordinance change because they see it as a piecemeal change to the ordinance's. They said that in the public meeting that I did not know about, David Culver, General Manager of the Land Use Department spoke against piecemeal code amendment which would address only chickens. David instead suggested that his department would comprehensively study the entire issue of farm animals in residential communities.
I hope this isn't one of those changes that gets stopped through analysis paralysis instead of action. I guess lawmakers don;t like easing restrictions.
Rambleton acres morgan brellahan finephotography@inbox.com
Im in 4h i thought you could have 6 hens and one rooster
What year was thi published
Morgan, This was something from 2009. The ordinances back then (I haven;t checked lately) for New Castle County Delaware were that you needed an acre of land to keep farm animals, including chickens. We were trying to get that amount down to 1/2 acre. The issue arose because someone had chickens on less than an acre and was being forced to remove them. We failed to get the ordnance changed. It might be different now.
I googled and found this page. I know it has been a long time, but I still hope that the law can be eased to allow 0.5 acre to 1 acre residential lots to raise a small number of hens for eggs. I've always wanted to do so, there can be more details as how the chicken coop should be located in the backyard or away from neighbors. I don't understand why this was not allowed since so many other states allow backyard chickens for eggs. We all need a healthy living.
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