OWENSBORO, Ky. — Isabelle Birkett still remembers the joy of collecting fresh eggs from her six hens, scratching happily in her Owensboro backyard. That was five years ago, before a neighbor’s complaint forced her to re-home them.

Now, she’s leading a charge to overturn Owensboro’s ban on backyard chickens, as the Owensboro City Commission prepares to vote Tuesday on an ordinance that would allow up to six hens in single-family backyards.

“I had a really good experience with them,” Birkett said, recalling her time raising chickens within city limits. “The satisfaction of getting our eggs, you walk out to your backyard and having that freedom and knowing exactly what your chickens ate and what you fed them.”

Owensboro’s current municipal code bans all fowl within city limits. The propo

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