Flagler Beach Exploring Allowance for Backyard Chickens, With Caution Against Turning Island Into Kauai

Flagler Beach City Commissioner Rick Belhumeur is interested in allowing residents to raise chickens in their backyards, similarly to Palm Coast, where the city just adopted a pilot program to that effect. 

Flagler Beach Commission Chair James Sherman is “open to it,” he says, “as long as we can have an ordinance drafted that’s easy to follow and one that keeps the chickens caged, because as you know we don’t have massive lots here in Flagler Beach.” Free-range chickens might be an issue, Sherman said, “otherwise Flagler Beach will look like the island of Kauai, where hundreds of chickens run wild.”

Polynesian brought pigs, dogs and chickens to the Hawaiian island centuries ago. The island has since been overrun with feral chickens, to the dismay of local authorities. Sherman lived on Oahu for several years and has first-hand knowledge of Kauai, where he visited frequently. 

Nothing of the kind of is expected in Flagler Beach or in Palm Coast. The Palm Coast program is caged in restrictions. But Flagler Beach Commissioner Eric Cooley isn’t as interested. “I don’t see it being a practical ordinance in my opinion. Chickens come up every year or two here from certain homeowners and the public has said over and over it is not something they want,” Cooley said. “If they want to propose it on large properties, I would not have an issue with it, but that is so few properties here in the city, I worry it will create confusion over being a benefit. Passing ordinances to help one or two residents gives me pause.”

A Flagler Beach resident approached Belhumeur (and the city attorney) about adopting similar rules. “We’ve talked about this in the past, but maybe we could do poultry without any roosters, or have certain limitations,” Belhumeur said. “I’m not talking about allowing them in 50-by-150-foot lots, but with certain parameters.” The chickens would be caged. 

The commissioner asked City Attorney Drew Smith to look into it. Some property owners are raising chickens even without a city ordinance. 

The city looked into such an ordinance a few years ago but didn’t go past the discussion stage. Egg prices have had a lot to do with it. Until early 2022, egg prices were below $2 a dozen. Prices rose above $4 a dozen by the end of 2022, fell back for most of 2023 and 2024, then spiked last December to over $4 again, reaching $6.227 in March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the highest level yet. Prices have dropped considerably since, to $2.59 a dozen last week. 

City Attorney Drew Smith has worked on backyard chicken ordinances in the past, for other local governments. “It won’t take much effort on my end,” Smith said. “We’ve done several, and I can tailor it to the city, take my best crack at it, and then you guys can take your red pens to it.” Smith said he will bring a draft for discussion first, rather than for a first reading, that way commissioners can have their input before it’s ready for first reading. The ordinance would have two readings before it is enacted.  

Palm Coast rejected a proposed backyard chicken ordinance that would have allowed for 25 permits in a pilot program. Four of the five city council members opposed to the ordinance were no longer on the council this year when Council member Theresa Pontieri revived the initiative, winning the council’s approval for a 50-permit program. Only homesteaded property owners are allowed to participate. They must abide by a long list of rules and pay a $50 fee for the two-year permit.  

“Thank you very much,” Mark Imhoff, a Flagler Beach resident, told the commissioners. “We lived in unincorporated Seminole County, outside of Orlando, and the zone we were in, you were allowed to have poultry. And exactly like you said, no roosters. You couldn’t even tell who had chickens and who didn’t. Nobody went crazy with chickens all over the place. You had them in little carts that you could move around in your yard, and the chickens kept down all the mosquitoes, ticks, all that stuff, it’s really good.” 

Raising chickens as a means of countering the price of eggs, however, may not be as evident as it sounds, though the subject is debated so often and with so much ardor that it has become a modern version of doctrines once debated at Lateran councils.

Anfal Al-Hussaini in The Hen House last week found that “the maximum cost to raise chickens in your backyard will be about $69/month, for a flock of 5 chickens, kept for 5 years.” At that price, a family could buy 14 dozen eggs a month at the store. The price includes a rather expensive $1,500 handmade chicken coop. (Store-bought coops can be expensive, but not that expensive for starters.)  Fromscratchfarmstead.com places the start-up costs at $720, and monthly costs at $200, so monthly costs alone could buy 40 dozen eggs.

Gubba Homestead, an advocate, concedes that it may be closer to a break-even point, but also argues that looking only at the bottom line disregards other, less tangible benefits of raising chickens.