Collingswood renews push to legalize backyard hens with pilot rules

Collingswood commissioners heard a fresh backyard-hen pitch at a June 1 meeting, and supporters returned with a plan built less like a free-for-all and more like a tightly managed pilot. Gwenne Baile, the South Jersey chicken organizer who has helped other towns write their rules, urged the borough to try a limited program after years of stalled attempts.

The draft framework would let only 30 households participate, with permits covering up to four hens each. Roosters would be banned, egg sales would be prohibited, and slaughtering would not be allowed. Residents would also have to complete an online care course and renew their permit for $10 a year. Supporters have framed the structure as a way to make hens look orderly, neighbor-friendly and easy to enforce. A five-member Backyard Chicken Advisory Board would handle complaints and help rehome birds if problems came up.

That board model is the clearest sign that Collingswood is borrowing from a nearby playbook instead of inventing one from scratch. Another account said prospective owners could be required to take a three-hour class, pass a quiz and undergo two site visits before approval, with the advisory board serving as the first stop for complaints before borough code enforcement stepped in. Haddon Township used a similar setup when it launched a backyard-chicken pilot on October 1, 2015, then extended it through October 1, 2017. After three years, the township moved to a permanent ordinance allowing up to eight chickens per household.

The reason that model keeps resurfacing is simple: it has become a local precedent. Baile has said she has helped about 30 municipalities pass backyard-chicken ordinances, while another 2026 account put the total at about 35 towns. She also told Collingswood commissioners that 19 Camden County municipalities already allow backyard hens, and she has pointed to Haddon Township as proof that complaints can stay low. In her telling, the township had only one complaint in 11 years. Baile has described backyard hens as “the pets that give you breakfast.”

That is the argument Collingswood is now trying to turn into ordinance language after roughly 18 years of starts and stops. The new push is not asking the borough to embrace hens without limits; it is asking officials to test whether a narrow pilot, a training requirement and a formal complaint system can finally get the issue past the same objections that derailed it before.