DES MOINES, Iowa — (AP) — Residents with backyard coops in Iowa’s capital city paraded with some of their chickens Monday from the Iowa Statehouse to City Hall after local officials ruffled their feathers by proposing stricter limits on raising birds in residential neighborhoods.
Ed and Mary Byrnes Fallon, the operators of an urban farm in Des Moines, hatched the protest after the City Council unveiled the proposal earlier this month to limit fowl play — and potential noise, smell and mess. The proposal would cut the number of birds allowed from 30 to 12 but also ban roosters.
Video posted online by KOI-TV showed several people in a small group of poultry enthusiasts holding chickens before walking the three-quarters of a mile from the Statehouse to City Hall. One boy wore a chicken hat.
“Flocks feed families,” Mary Byrnes Fallon said. “We need to have these birds in our communities to help people understand …