Chickens could be OK, but no gamecocks

Columbia has been home to the Gamecocks since 1801, but it’s not legal to own one now, and not later, either. However, the city is looking at allowing residents to keep up to four hens within city limits.

The cluck stops here.

Next Wednesday, a proposed ordinance to allow Columbia homeowners to keep up to four chickens in their backyards will get a first airing in a public hearing.

Don’t worry — the proposal before City Council bans roosters, those noisy male fowl who do not lay eggs and whose crowing can drive a neighborhood crazy. And don’t worry, the chickens can lay eggs without them.

City officials say questions raised at the meeting will help them improve the ordinance, if they chose to pass it later.

“There’s a good bit of interest in the proposal,” said Councilman Sam Davis, who has heard from about 50 people, “pro and con.”

If Columbia enacts a chicken-owning ordinance, it will join other cities around the country that let residents raise female chickens, or hens – primarily to let people gather home-grown eggs.

We’re not really sure how this is going to go down, except that Olympia will probably be overrun with hens. And the hippie class off of Rosewood. Then, you have to account for predators. We’ve seen a number of foxes around Five Points and Olympia, and it’s not the most shocking thing to hear of a fox running off with a chicken to have for its dinner.

San Francisco has been doing the urban chicken thing for a while, for reasons not the least of which is liberal foodies who want organic eggs. We’d rather just go to Publix, but hey, whatever makes you cockle-doodle-doo. The thing with the Bay Area, though, is that there have been roosters involved, which has led to vigilante justice and wrung necks of the poultry.

We simply can’t wait until there are Faulkner-esque chicken thief stories in the police reports.