Madison Heights Reconsidering Chicken Ban

Chickens could be coming home to roost soon in Madison Heights.

The city council is scheduled to vote Monday on an ordinance that would allow residents to keep hens in their backyards.

Residents of a number of Michigan cities are pushing for acceptance of live chickens.

Michigan Agriculture Department environmental director Jim Johnson tells the Detroit Free Press the agency is getting ``more and more calls of individuals in urban settings ``asking about raising chickens.

Twenty-three-year-old Amy Lechtenberg of Sterling Heights and her family raise hens but have been cited by the city. She says the Michigan Right to Farm Act gives people broad rights when it comes to raising chickens.

Sterling Heights spokesman Steve Guitar says the city is sticking with the chicken ban.

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