Elie Marovich lives in Port Orange, which does not permit homeowners to raise Urban Chickens right now.

And yet, she’s buying feed for her chickens.

“We have three chickens, three hens and we’ve had them for about a year,” said Marovich.

  • Port Orange will consider a backyard chicken proposal, possibly in August
  • Port Orange currently bans backyard chickens
  • Residents can be fined and forced to give the birds up

Ellie is violating a current city ordinance which does not permit backyard chickens within Port Orange city limits.

However, that may soon change.

The assistant city manager is looking at ordinances across Central Florida which do permit Urban Chickens in places like Deltona, Debary and Orlando.

“We plan on coming back in the next couple of months, maybe sometime in August, with all the pros and cons, what other cities have done. And then the city will decide if they want to make a change to the land development code,” said assistant city manager Alan Rosen.

Michael Glasnack, the owner of Country Garden Feed store says owning backyard chickens is an idea that’s catching on, mostly because people want to know where their eggs come from.

Marovich actually bought her chickens from Glasnack. He says he’s not only seeing an increase in feed sales, but he’s sold quite a few chickens as well.

“A lot of people in the city, a lot of people in the county here -- Port Orange, Ponce Inlet, Daytona Beach Shores -- I have chickens all over,” said Glasnack.

“I grew up around here. And I had chickens when I was growing up when I was a little girl. And I wanted to carry that on with my children,” said Marovich.

Rosen says Port Orange’s city ordinance on backyard chickens will likely mirror Orlando’s, which permits several chickens per household.

One type of chicken you won’t find in Port Orange, however, is a rooster. That’s because roosters can lead to complaints from neighbors.

“We don’t want to be woken up too early,” said Marovich.

Right now, if Port Orange code enforcement finds homeowners with backyard chickens, they are given a warning and allowed to get rid of the chickens before the case goes to a hearing.

But city officials say they are not aggressively seeking out chicken owners.