Backyard Chickens

I've decided to raise chickens. The wife isn't quite sure of the idea but she is willing to go along and I'm sure she is hoping she won't regret it.

This all started when we went to the local hardware store to get a few things for the house. The store has a feed section where they carry horse tack, feed, and farm accessories. I couldn't help overhearing a constant peeping coming from the corner, so the wife and I went to investigate. There was a giant watering tub full of young chicks (pullets, which I learned about later). They were adorable! We both looked at each other and said we need to get some. We didn't buy any that moment but it started the ball rolling.

We live about an hour east of Vancouver. Vancouver has recently passed a bylaw allowing "Urban Chickens". I figure if they can, why can't I? We talked it over, discussed the pros and cons, even mentioned it to some friends. My buddy was really inclined to help. So I began to search the bylaws of my city. Think I could find anything about chickens? Nope. I ended up reading 300 pages of zoning bylaws. Well I didn't read them all...I read a large section of it and by scanning it I found out the following: To be allowed "chickens" you have to be zoned as Rural, Rural residential, or Sub Urban. I soon discovered that I was zoned for Urban Residential. No chickens. Apparently we are only allowed to have a green house in the backyard. Given the dimensions of the green house it listed, it would be tons of room for 4 chickens. Looking into it more a report was done in 2009 to find the pros and cons of allowing chickens in the Urban Residential Zone. Nothing was changed as council was going wait until the city of Vancouver decided on their bylaws first. Since nothing has been done after Vancouver's vote, I have decided to do it anyways.