Chickens expected to get OK from Cedar Rapids council on Tuesday evening

Chickens may be headed to a backyard near you.

Five weeks ago, a majority of City Council members said they favored a one-year trial in which, perhaps, 50 households would be allowed to raise six hens in their backyards.

The council votes on the measure at its meeting on Tuesday evening.

Cedar Rapids Citizens for the Legalization of Urban Chickens -- CR-CLUC -- has been pecking away at the council for six months, asking for permission to try the experiment.

At its meeting on May 11, council members Justin Shields and Chuck Swore said they would back the chicken trial. Mayor Ron Corbett and council members Monica Vernon and Pat Shey also have expressed support on the nine-member council, Corbett said in May.

The city of Iowa City has put a similar measure on hold, while the town of Palo, just to Cedar Rapids' northwest, recently has approved a backyard chicken measure.

CR-CLUC emphasizes that only hens are coming to backyards, not noisy roosters.

The group says allowing people to raise a few hens honors their right to raise "healthy and wholesome food."

"Keeping a few hens is a sustainable way of gardening food for our families in our own backyards," CR-CLUC says in its brochures.