Burlington asks residents whether backyard chickens should be allowed

Burlington still prohibits keeping fowl within city limits under Burlington City Code Section 6-13, but Burlington City Council is reconsidering that restriction and asking residents to take part in a community survey on backyard chickens. For homeowners, that means hens are not currently legal in residential yards under the city’s code, even as the policy is now being opened up for public input.

The city’s backyard chickens page makes the current status plain: the ban stands for now, and the conversation is centered on whether that should change. WXII 12 also reported that Burlington is asking residents whether backyard chickens should be allowed, showing the issue has moved from private interest into an active public discussion. Alamance County Cooperative Extension shared a Burlington post dated June 29 inviting residents to have their say, which puts a clear marker on when the outreach was underway.

The policy question is not new to Burlington. A city ordinance document labeled Ordinance No. 980 shows the city once considered amending its code to remove chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese or other fowl from the prohibition and add a new chapter, Title 6, Chapter 6.16, for keeping chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese or other poultry, care and regulations. That history matters because it shows Burlington has already wrestled with how to regulate poultry rather than simply banning it outright.

If council moves forward, the details will matter as much as the yes-or-no vote. Any backyard-chicken ordinance could spell out flock size, setbacks, inspections, licensing or other conditions meant to reduce conflict in tighter neighborhoods. That is where the practical questions start to hit home: coop placement, odor, sanitation, feed storage, predators, flies and whether the city can enforce the rules it adopts.

A local news item has also framed the backyard-chicken issue as something Burlington residents have brought back to city council before, not a brand-new idea. For anyone hoping to keep hens, the current step is straightforward: use the city’s survey and public input process, because the ban in Section 6-13 remains the controlling rule until Burlington changes it.