Hour 4 of Ottawa Now for Tues. May 6th, 2025

On Monday, the town of Smiths Falls did a vibe check on backyard chickens. As part of a one-year pilot project, residents were allowed to house backyard chickens on their properties, mainly for the purpose of producing fresh eggs. The latest motion successfully passed after Mayor Shawn Pankow delivered the final thumbs-up. Under what is called the Backyard Hen Pilot Program, residents can keep up to 6 backyard hens at either a residential property or a property used primarily for residence. All hen coops must be draft-proof, dry, and insulated from the public. But as we saw from the razor-thin vote at City Hall, not everyone is on board with this idea. In fact, some say it’s flawed. Kristy Cameron digs deeper with Liz Wheeler, the co-founder of Secondhand Stories Chicken Sanctuary. Plus, we deliver the latest breaking news headlines as they happen, right here on CFRA’s Ottawa Now.