With bees on the agenda, backyard chickens should be brought back for discussion too

FRIDAY MORNING EDITORIAL — There’s a lot of buzz about the upcoming public hearing on allowing backyard bees in Kamloops. People will, no doubt, swarm to it.

It’s easy to write puns about bees, but it’s a serious matter. Bees are good. Except when they sting.

So adding to the population of urban bees is bound to be unpopular with some, which will make for a very interesting public hearing, and some interesting discussion at the City council table.

Which makes one wonder why chickens haven’t been let out of the coop. Despite several tries by chicken people — and a lot of media puns about squawking, etc. — Kamloops is still a holdout on backyard chickens.

The reasons for being so opposed to backyard chickens mostly don’t stand up. If chicken coops are kept clean, which is an issue that can be enforced, there’s no reason not to allow them, and plenty of reasons to allow them.

Roosters, of course, would be on the restricted list, so all we’re talking about noise-wise is a bit of clucking. Chickens add to self-sufficiency and, besides that, are fun to have around. They eat bugs and wander around giving one a sense of being just a little bit closer to the land.

Any problems with rogue chickens can be handled. Bees are another matter — despite the skills of beekeepers, herding bees isn’t easy. But if bees get the green light, so should chickens.