Yard chickens: Is it authorized to maintain chickens in Tampa & St. Pete?

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Relating to conserving chickens, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties are birds of a feather. Each cities enable conserving chickens on residential property, which means that amid consistently rising costs for eggs, there’s an choice for some residents to keep away from the road on the retailer.

The newest Client Worth Index report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics confirmed that whereas nationwide inflation ranges are both down or staying the place they’re, the value of eggs has continued to extend, rising 60% previously yr. The value of eggs in shops rose 11.1% in simply December.

Nonetheless, it’s additionally difficult by a rash of business flocks which have been contaminated with avian flu. The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture reported on Jan. 18 that greater than 58 million chickens had been contaminated with the present pressure of Avian Influenza. Of these, 432 flocks had been “yard flocks,” and 312 had been industrial flocks.

Whereas the costs have been on the rise for months, even way back to April 2022, some commerce organizations are blaming egg suppliers for the value jumps, relatively than simply laying the blame on the chicken flu infections.

Farm Motion, a farming group, referred to as on the Federal Commerce Fee to analyze egg suppliers “in response to record-high egg costs.” They mentioned the FTC wants to analyze, then “prosecute any violations of the antitrust legal guidelines” if egg suppliers are harming Individuals, or utilizing “unfair misleading acts or practices” when adjusting prices to customers.

“Inspecting publicly-available monetary information from the egg trade, the letter determines that the availability disruption attributable to the avian flu outbreak had an ‘apparently gentle affect on the trade,’ as the typical dimension of the egg-laying flock in any given month of 2022 was by no means greater than six % decrease than it was a yr prior,” Farm Motion mentioned, calling out Cal-Maine, an egg provider, particularly.

“For the 26-week interval ending on November 26, 2022, Cal-Maine reported a ten-fold year-over-year improve in gross earnings — from $50.392 million to $535.339 million — and a five-fold improve in its gross margins,” Farm Motion mentioned, saying that weekly costs had elevated past the “gentle affect on the trade” that the avian flu outbreak had on provides and enterprise.

Naturally, individuals wish to discover methods round spending a lot on meals, together with eggs, particularly if they will keep house to do it. Nonetheless, whereas each counties enable conserving chickens for egg-laying functions, the 2 cities diverge in relation to what’s allowed.

In Hillsborough County, and Tampa extra particularly, conserving egg-laying chickens is Grade-A-OK. You may have as much as 10 chickens in Tampa, however no roosters, based on the town’s municipal code.

Within the bigger county space, together with the unincorporated communities, the Hillsborough County Code permits as much as 5 hens for egg-laying, additionally no roosters. Promoting eggs on-site is prohibited.

For Pinellas residents, roosters are additionally not allowed, although you might be allowed to maintain chickens. The county doesn’t enable the sale of chickens, their eggs, or their manure, nor the breeding of chickens for industrial functions. The restrict on what number of chickens county residents can maintain is about at 4.

In St. Petersburg, the foundations are barely totally different. The College of Florida’s Institute of Meals and Agricultural Sciences has an inventory of the varied laws for yard poultry in Pinellas County. The college studies that county laws, so far as chickens, solely apply to unincorporated components of Pinellas.

In consequence, there are simply 5 cities which have express instructions or laws in relation to conserving chickens within the county: Belleair, Dunedin, Gulfport, Largo, and St. Petersburg.

Based on IFAS, the next areas enable chickens.