Mayor Emma Cole and a feathered friend. Photo supplied.

CHICKENS and bees will be easier to keep in Vincent under a new proposed Animal Local Law.

Mayor Emma Cole tells us the existing rules make keeping chickens “really tricky: you might only be able to have one chicken in the middle of your backyard”.

Currently chickens are required to be kept 15 metres away from any dwelling, can’t be within 18 metres of a street, and had to be kept in a minimum 30sqm enclosure with a smooth concrete floor – which chickens hate since their main hobby is digging in dirt for grubs and weeds. 

Under the new rules residents will be able to keep six chickens, but having a rooster will still need city approval. 

The new rules still need to go out for public consultation, and while chicken allowances are up, the maximum number of pigeons a member of a pigeon club is allowed to keep may plunge from 100 to 50. 

A second part of the new Animal Local Law paves the way to create cat exclusion zones in environmentally sensitive areas, with penalties for owners who flout the rules.

Vincent won’t introduce rules confining cats to the owner’s property unless leashed, which Cockburn council has adopted and will start enforcing from 2025, preferring to wait for the state government to take the lead.