Backyard chickens in Lee County: a growing flock

By Andrea Thrower

Do you know what happened to your eggs before you scrambled them for breakfast?

If you live in Lee County, they might have traveled about 300 miles in a truck that burned fossil fuel and released CO2. That’s from a spot-check of two Publix stores in the county, using this tool.

For Tammy Harvey in North Fort Myers, the eggs travel less than 100 feet on her electric golf cart—from her coop to a drawer that overflows with more eggs than her family can eat.

“Thankfully, they last up to three months if you don’t wash ‘em. And we’ll give some out to friends,” Harvey said, adding newly laid eggs to the drawer.

Harvey is “mother” to 13 hens of four different breeds; one rooster; and a brood of Americana chicks. She has cared for hens about a year and half. The chicks are her most recent edition, doubling her flock.

Harvey began raising chickens when she received just a few of them from her daughter in 2017. Harvey was hesitant at first. She had never raised chickens before—or any sort of animal, for that matter.  But she said that raising chickens is not the daunting task that she thought it would be.

“The only hard part would be cleaning out the coop,” Harvey said, “but even that isn’t too bad.”

As her number of hens grew, she made more space for them. Her husband helped convert what was a single horse stall and a barn overhang into a coop with three areas for the chickens: two open areas for roaming and roosting and one to separate the chickens as needed. The new chicks are in a fourth area of the barn, which will be opened once the chicks are large enough to join the others.

“On a regular day, I do my rounds, just checking the food and water and making sure they play nice,” said Harvey, as she gestured to a small enclosure within the coop, where one small fluffy chicken and a larger chicken live.

“Those two were getting picked on a little bit,” she said.

Harvey said that her “girls” are like pets that provide food for her family and friends and she wouldn’t trade them for anything. She encourages others to try out backyard chickens.

Because the chickens aren’t cramped, Harvey said, their eggs have big health benefits. Harvey’s chickens are not free-range, but they have most of a barn to move around in, whereas commercial poultry houses are tightly packed with chickens one on top of the other. According to Mother Earth News, pastured eggs have one-third of the cholesterol and a quarter of the saturated fat of other eggs. Harvey said she also enjoys the rich flavor.

“I don’t usually even eat eggs except for in a quiche or something, but these are delicious,” she said.

Harvey is able to raise chickens because she lives on agricultural land in unincorporated Lee County. There are few places in southwest Florida that allow homeowners to raise chickens. Until 2011, it wasn’t legal to do so in Lee County unless you lived on agricultural land. But regulations changed in the City of Bonita Springs and the City of Fort Myers.

Jennifer Hagen, a former Bonita Springs city planner, helped push through the Lee County backyard chicken ordinances. Hagen is also a Family and Consumer Sciences Agent from the University of Florida. She said one of the barriers was that people are fearful of having chickens in their communities. Their main concerns were that the chickens would be unclean and noisy and would decrease property values.

“Which is just ridiculous,” Hagen said, “because dogs and small children can be much more noisy than chickens,” she said. “A lot of people did not understand that you don’t need a rooster in order to get eggs. The ladies will produce whether there’s a rooster around or not.”

She said the environmental benefits of raising your own chickens are enormous. In the U.S., food often travels between 1,500 and 2,500 miles from the farm, according to the Worldwatch Institute, an environmental and social policy research organization in Washington, D.C.

“Having chickens lessens our impact on the food supply and educates your family on where your food comes from,” Hagen said. “When you start to realize that your food is travelling those 1,500 miles to get to your plate, people finally start to think ‘What can I do to reduce MY impact?’”

Residents in the City of Bonita Springs and the City of Fort Myers can apply for a permit to raise backyard chickens, but there are provisions. The maximum number of hens is four; only single-family home property can be used; and the coop must be 20 feet from the closest neighbor.

On agricultural property, you can have many more chickens as long as your land permits the space. Hagen said she hopes to start her own small farm to help provide fresh products to the community. For now, she gives out her abundance of eggs to friends and family.

“Each week my husband has people bringing empty cartons to work asking for eggs, so we know the demand is there,” said Harvey.

Hagen said that the fresh egg demand is indeed increasing as more people learn the benefits. At many farmers markets, the eggs are gone within the first hour of business. She is partnered with an organization called Eat Local Lee, which has a map of local farms, farmer’s markets, fish purveyors, breweries, and meat markets to help connect the consumer to local producers in Lee County.

Hagen said that educating yourself about where your food comes from connects you to the community—whether it’s getting to know the family raising the chickens or going to a farmer’s market to pick up fresh eggs.

“You know how the chickens were raised. Then, you have this immediate, nutritious product that has not been transported hundreds of miles or sitting on a shelf for a month before it gets to your hands and you’re learning a way to reduce your impact on the food systems,” Hagen said.

More information:

Find out where your grocery store eggs came from by searching the plant number from your carton of eggs at the USDA’s Plant Book.

See the full chicken ordinances for Fort Myers and Bonita Springs.