Thursday, June 30, 2011
Patch talks to the longtime residents who have been raising four hens in their backyard, but were recently denied when they asked the city to allow it.
Al and Louise Thomas were certainly not trying to ruffle any feathers last winter when they decided to raise and keep hens at their Pemberton Road home in Grosse Pointe Park. The couple did extensive research about raising, feeding and caring for hens, including going to a conference in Pennsylvania sponsored by Mother Earth News, Louise said. The chicks, purchased from a farm in Brighton, came home with the Thomases in November. They raised them in a dog cage in their laundry room and moved them to the outdoor home on Palm Sunday. The couple intentionally exchanged two of the chicks when it became obvious they were roosters—a part of the purchase deal. The exchange was intended to spare area residents from the noise of roosters, who crow …
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Five things to help you get your day started in Grosse Pointe.
Here are a few things to help you get your day started. 1. It will be party sunny but breezy today, according to the National Weather Service, with highs nearing 80. A cold front will move in this afternoon and could bring some wet weather with it. 2. A Grosse Pointe Park couple won't be allowed to keep their chickens after a council meeting Monday, in which council voted to not consider an exception to an ordinance banning undomesticated animals. The couple raised the chickens from chicks and believed they would provide a good educational/bonding experience for their grandchildren, who live immediately behind them. 3. The Grosse Pointe School Board passed its 2011/2012 fiscal year budget that includes a variety of proposed cuts district…
City Council tells couple their four hens must go.
Minutes, agendas, blueprints and architectural sketches are the typical printed fodder of a city council meeting, but it was a framed 8x10 color close-up of a bright-eyed, tow-headed little boy snuggled next to his red hen that went on display at the Grosse Pointe Park Council meeting Monday. Al and Louise Thomas' three grandchildren have grown close to the four chickens kept in a coop and pen in the Thomas' back yard on Pemberton. While they and their grandchildren love the chickens and their eggs and their connection to nature, the hens apparently ruffled someone's feathers and that person complained to the city. That led the city to say the chickens had to go, and that sent the couple to Monday's City Council meeting asking for an …
Jessica Guzmán Dunn
3:35 pm on Friday, July 1, 2011
maybe the city just has a problem with animals. first they wanted to ban some dogs (overturned), now they want to ban chickens. more ›