A proposal to regulate the ownership of chickens ruffled some feathers in the town of Merrimack.

Approximately 100 residents, many of them poultry owners and their neighbors, attended a Town Council hearing on the ordinance on Thursday, overflowing the meeting room.

It’s unusual for a small-town government meeting to attract that much participation, as Town Manager Paul Micali himself noted a couple of months earlier while seeking direction for next year’s budget.

The proposed regulations would have addressed noise complaints by limiting the number of chickens to 10 per residential lot , with roosters — louder, dominant males in a flock — prohibited on lots smaller than 1.5 acres. These limitations wouldn’t apply to agricultural districts.

The Town Council voted unanimously to not mo

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