The Durham Planning Commission voted 10-4 Tuesday night to recommend legalizing female chickens inside the city limits.

There's even talk of raising the proposed 10-hen cap per property for larger lots.

If all goes smoothly, the Durham City Council will vote on the proposed ordinance early next year. The item is tentatively scheduled for the council's Jan. 5, 2009 meeting. And with the commission's approval, the odds are strongly in the DurhamHENS' (Healthy Egg Neighborhood Supporters) favor.

The HENS are the heart of the hens-in-the-city movement, and have accumulated more than 1,500 signatures on a chicken petition since last spring.

Members were in full force, donning their chick-yellow HENS T-shirts to support the proposal drawn up by the planning department at their behest. Chris Crochetiere spoke for HENS, touting the joy she and her husband feel when they are able to eat fresh produce they've grown themselves. It not only tastes better, but is better for the environment, she said, and wouldn't it be lovely to say the same about eggs?

"Seeing how backyard chickens work well in urban areas made us very, very jealous," she said after going on Raleigh's charitable Tour d'Coop.

Kavanah Ramsier, youth group director for SEEDS (South Eastern Efforts Developing Sustainable Spaces), the group that initiated the HENS movement, took the mike next. She reiterated that the group was grateful for the staff's help, but also raised a few questions.

The group doesn't like that two fees are proposed: one for a permit to own the animals and another for building a coop. The group also wanted to reserve the right to share produce grown in chicken manure-enriched compost, have more than one chicken manure compost bin per property, and not be tied down to a specific predator-detracting design for the coops themselves. After a bit of debate, the commission recommended approval on all the group asked for, except for eliminating the double fees. The fees are handled by two different government departments and cannot be avoided.

DurhamHENS got the egg rolling in early August. Working with Julia Mullen in the planning department, an ordinance was drafted based on the group's research and on what other North Carolina cities have done. Durham remains the only city in the state, aside from Cary, that bans hens within its city limits. HENS members were surprised when the conversation turned toward allowing more than the proposed ordinance's 10 hens per yard. Planning commissioners Robert Womack and LaDawna Summers expressed an interest in revisiting that limitation at a future meeting -- 10 hens seemed like too few if people had acres to spare.

The current laws allow chickens, both male and female, outside the city limits in the county with no cap on their numbers. All but a few lots in the city (those that are exceptionally large) are currently banned from any agricultural practice, including keeping poultry for any purposes.

The proposed ordinance calls for at least 3 square-feet per hen, and covered coops. Chickens let outside the coop must be supervised at all times. The coops are to be located at least 15 feet from any property line or public right of way, and pens (chicken runs) at least 5 feet from any property line or right of way.

At the meeting, Cindy Bailey, director of Durham County Animal Control, said she was concerned about people slaughtering hens when they stop laying eggs. HENS members were responsible folks, she said, "but you can't control who is going to take advantage of this." Recent complaints of goats being killed in Durham backyards for traditional religious sacrifices have raised concerns about slaughtering animals in the city limits. Bailey has chickens on her county property, she said, and she lets them die of natural causes.

HENS members say they mainly want chickens for their eggs and companionship. State law does not prohibit the slaughtering of animals on one's property, so the local ordinance will comply.