Summerville’s borough council has decided to not count its chickens.

“That is sad,” I clucked.

I think the decision is fowl play to those residents in Summerville who keep poultry, or whose lives might be brightened by doing egg-zactly that.

Why is the council not allowing its residents to feather their nests?

The “plethora of decisions” which would have had to been made to

Allow keeping of chickens included:

How many?

What size lot?

What size pen?

Protection from predators.

Permit fees.

Enforcement.

Possible manure management plans.

Not being allowed to sell eggs, according to Laura Lynn Yohe’s story in the Courier-Express.

The council members have egg on their councilmanic faces. We elect local governmental leaders specifically to make such decisions, not to avoid making them.

Entire flocks of other communities have successfully crafted poultry-limiting ordinances. They range in size from major cities to tiny boroughs such as Summerville, population about 500 people.

Those 500 people are spread across a whopping 395 acres. That is a population density of only 843 per square mile. That is practically rural.

The council of a small borough ought to be able to sensibly decide such matters without causing residents to fly the coop.

I am no spring chicken myself, but I have kept a flock for a decade and more as we scratch out a living in retirement. Not to strut my own stuff, but here are my common-sense suggestions regarding the aforementioned decisions.”

¯ Up to eight laying hens, no roosters.

¯ Lot size doesn’t matter. Setbacks do matter. About 20 feet per side minimum.

¯ Pen size doesn’t matter. Pen cleanliness does matter. Floors of wood or concrete must be cleaned every three months, and disinfected. Floors of dirt should be kept in deep-litter fashion, which must be turned every week to shovel-blade depth.

¯ Protection from predators would be the poultry owner’s concern. Neighboring dogs or cats caught actually attacking chickens can be shot – and better have feathers in their mouths if that is done. Neighbors have a responsibility to keep their dogs and cats on their own property, which probably is not being done very well right now.

¯ Selling of eggs should be permitted, limited or restrained on the same basis as are the sales of other products from homes, including shoes, perfume, laundry detergent, etc.

There. That was simple.

Of course, some neighbor is bound to have ruffled feathers. Some people let anything stick in their craws.

My reaction? Listen. If the complaint seems to be valid, seek a solution. If the complaint seems to be sour grapes, don’t walk on eggshells. Politely tell the complainant to shut up – or run for a seat on the borough council.

Back when my wife informed me that we would be getting five chickens within the next five days, I brooded over the news. I didn’t like the idea. From childhood, I remembered the stink associated with cleaning chicken coops in spring after that chore had been neglected all winter long.

I found out that deep litter dirt floors inside well-constructed chicken houses can be pitchfork turned every week even in extremely cold temperatures. Old timers might not have done so, in an era when there was much more necessary physical labor that needed to be performed. These days, the chore is manageable.

I also found out that keeping chickens is fun.

For a taste test, I bought a dozen store-bought eggs, then cooked up four, two scrambled and two fried, alongside four fresh-laid eggs.

The fresh eggs were incomparably better in texture and taste.

Store-bought eggs do have one advantage. Because they are weeks or even months old, on average, they are better suited to being hard-boiled and then peeled, because the air bubble at one end of each egg facilitates peeling. Fresh-laid eggs are chock full of egg white and yolk, and do not peel as easily.

The chickens themselves are an ingrained part of our culture: handwriting like chicken scratching, wake up with the chickens, chickens come home to roost, a small amount of money is chicken feed, politicians attend rubber chicken dinners, we have chicken-or-egg situations, we run around like chickens with their heads cut off, etc.

A Google search will yield dozens more.

We talk so much in chicken-speak because chickens are fun to raise. They are interesting to watch. They cull the populations of ticks, bugs and other pests. They turn table scraps into compostable manure. Communities that allow chickens feather their own nests. Birds of a feather flock together, that sort of thing.

So I suggest that local governing bodies ought to rule their own roosts and allow chicken keeping, with reasonable restrictions.

As to the naysayers, it is good to recall that to make an omelet, one must break a few eggs.

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Denny Bonavita is a former editor at newspapers in DuBois and Warren. He lives near Brookville. Email: denny2319@windstream.net.