No urban chickens in Constantine

The Constantine Village Council voted Monday to disallow urban chickens to be raised inside the village limits.
At several earlier meetings, council members discussed an ordinance allowing urban chickens, following a June 20 discussion with residents Charlie and Beth Cauffman, who approached the board with a request to keep up to six chickens in their yard.
At a council meeting in August, Jeff and Nancy Cale asked if they may continue to keep two urban chickens at their home. Nancy Cale said they recently moved to Constantine, and were not aware of that village policy limits animals to standard household animals, such as dogs and cats.
Village manager Mark Honeysett presented a list of proposed guidelines for having chickens within the village limits to the council prior to the vote. He obtained the guidelines after a meeting with the Cauffmans and Cales. Honeysett said the council had several options: to ignore the request for an ordinance; pass the guideline to village attorney Howard Bush to draft an ordinance; or pass the guidelines on to the planning commission for further study.
Trustee Cathy Piper said she was raised on a farm and chicken feed attracts rodents and predators. Several council members agreed.