Clermont city council approved an ordinance Tuesday that makes way for backyard chickens throughout the city. In a unanimous vote, council members allowed residents in developed single-family homes to keep up to five female chickens.
Clermont joins cities like Orlando and Winter Garden in giving residents the option to raise the bird. The city previously touched on the idea in 2018, but Tuesday evening’s discussion came amidst national talk of rising egg prices and H5N1 bird flu.
City council member Bill Peterson voiced his unease in potentially dealing with the illness.
“Bird flu is a big word out there,” he said, although he voted in support of the ordinance.
The concern over avian flu was top of mind throughout the city council chambers a week after a new variant of bird flu appeared in cattle. The city made note of an email from Dr. Robert Olson at Orlando Health that eased those concerns and expressed support for the backyard chicken movement.
Harrison Creek Farm in Groveland specializes in chicken. Owner Kimberly Harrison said the illness and its effects have been on her radar since November – and the impact from Hurricane Milton has not helped.
Still, she encouraged residents who wish to raise chickens to take precautions like proper disposal of waste and vigorous hand washing. She said despite bird flu’s notoriety at the moment, residents should be mindful that it is not the only illness that could affect their birds.
“When you have an injured or sick chicken, and worst comes to worst, what is your plan?” she asked.
For those who wish to keep chickens, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides a biosecurity guide. More than 150 million birds in the United States have been affected by bird flu, according to the USDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Another national issue contributing to the backyard chicken movement is the price of eggs. The average nationwide price per dozen eggs in January 2025 reached a record high $4.95 since tracking began in 1980, according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report from Feb. 12. The USDA previously estimated that egg prices will rise 20% this year.
Grocery chains like Aldi and Trader Joe’s have placed limits on the number of egg cartons a patron can buy. The Clermont chicken ordinance will do little to help those without backyard chickens — it prohibits residents from selling any product from their birds, including eggs, meat and feathers.
Prospective chicken owners will also need a coop. Coops cannot be taller than six feet, and any associated chicken run cannot exceed 100 square feet. City council amended the law to require a “simple application,” but there was no addition of a permit for the coop or birds.
For Marion Ringwood, that omission was one of many problems she had with the ordinance. She said it simply didn’t make sense not to require a permit.
“You need a permit for a shed, why not for this?” she asked. “What happens when there’s a hurricane, or when someone goes on vacation and has to leave the birds?”
Ringwood is the president of one of Clermont’s homeowners associations (HOA). She said the law creates a new burden for HOA leaders, as there is no clear indicator on how to enforce the ordinance. Although it passed, the law states it is up to each HOA to determine if residents can actually add the feathery friends onto their property.
Clermont’s backyard chickens will be implemented as a two-year sunset pilot program; the city will revisit the program in two years to see if its implementation was successful and worthy of keeping around.
For those who want to get into the chicken-owning game, Harrison Creek Farm’s Harrison said anyone who wished to raise the bird needs to be prepared for reality; she warned that proper protection from predators and at least half-an-hour of daily upkeep are key to chicken care.
“A lot of times, people will get chicks thinking it’s cute,” she said. “Oh man, it’s a lot of maintenance.”
Chickens must be removed after three violations of the law in three separate events.
