BANGOR, Maine — Shane Tyrrell has put three additions on his backyard chicken coup since he began keeping chickens at his Kenduskeag home a few years ago.
In order to make space for the new chickens, currently living under a heat lamp in his garage, Tyrrell is planning yet another addition to his coup when the weather gets warmer.
In Kenduskeag, families like the Tyrrell's can keep as many chickens as they'd like.
They can keep "Randy, Bob, Chester, Bella, Snowflake, Albert, Marsh-mellow, and Crazy Carol," to name a few of the Tyrrell family's chickens.
In Portland, there's an ordinance allowing residents to have a maximum of six chickens but all of them have to be female hens.
Bangor is considering an ordinance which, like in Portland, would allow residents to keep a certain number of domestic chickens in their backyards too.
The city last took up this debate in 2010 which led to an ordinance being drafted, but never passed by the city council.
"I think absolutely Bangor should allow their residents to have a limited number of chickens," said Shane Tyrrell.
Nearly all of Tyrrell's chickens have names because they're more than just a source of egg production. They're part of the family.
"Eventually I was able to talk my wife into letting me get some chickens," said Tyrrell.
He started with just a single chicken. Eventually, he got a few more hens to begin egg production on a larger scale in order to keep his family and friends "in eggs."
"I feel like they just taste better than the ones at the store," said Kamryn Tyrrell, one of Shane's twin daughters. "The ones at the store are more bland."
"They're allowed to free range and eat bugs and all the good things that makes those eggs taste that much better than the ones that you may get in a grocery store," said Tyrrell.
What started as Tyrrell's venture for farm fresh eggs quickly became twofold.
"For a lot of people, chickens are pets," added Tyrrell. "A lot of people, if they choose to keep them in Bangor on a small scale, they're going to be [pets.] Yes, you're going to get some eggs, but these are also going to be pets, and they make good pets."
Twelve miles away from the Tyrrell home, as the chicken flies in Bangor, there's a push from some residents to revisit the 2010 draft ordinance to allow domestic chickens in their backyards too.
"I really want chickens," said 10-year-old Aiden Doughty.
Doughty is leading the pro-chicken charge.
He was the first person to speak on the topic in front of the city council at a public meeting last week.
"To find that I could make a difference was exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time because, well, I was talking to the city council," exclaimed Doughty. "It makes me really glad that maybe I can have chickens as pets."
Doughty had six chickens about a year ago until he found out he wasn't allowed to keep them in his backyard in Bangor.
As Doughty tells it, that's when he was forced to find his chickens another good home.
"I was devastated," recalled Doughty. "They meant a lot to me. They would relieve all my stress."
Residents like Doughty want to keep chickens as pets but not everyone in Bangor is jumping up to do the chicken dance at the idea.
"Neighbors are just a little unsure about the idea of sort of cohabiting in close quarters with chickens which sometimes can be a little unruly, sometimes they can be great," said Tanya Emery, Bangor's Community and Economic Development director.
Noise, odor, and predators are all valid concerns brought up by the anti-chicken clan.
"If the chickens aren't properly secured and they get out and they end up in someone else's yard," added Emery, as an example of one concern residents have.
The city of Bangor hasn't yet taken a side on the chicken debate.
"So far the council has simply said that they're interested in exploring the issue," said Emery.
A future city council meeting, at a time still to be determined, will decide whether councilors are interested in moving forward with an updated draft ordinance discussing domestic chickens in the city.
"We went back and looked at that [2010] ordinance and we've started talking to some other communities to see what they've learned between then and now, in the last decade or so, with communities having experience with chickens particularly in more dense neighborhoods," said Emery. We're looking for "some ways that we can try to put some protections in place so that things don't go too far, too fast."
Back in Kenduskeag at the Tyrrell family coup, where they keep more than 30 birds outdoors year round, Shane Tyrrell is already putting a few of the anti-cluck clan's concerns to lay.
"Having a few chickens in Bangor is not going to bring the coyote population into Bangor," said Tyrrell. "Most of the complaints or concerns that I've heard about from some local residents are dependent upon worst case scenario."
"By having a certain number of permits allowed per year, we would ensure that the entire city doesn't completely go run out and get chickens tomorrow," said Emery.