Nik Rajkovic / news@whmi.com

More Brighton Township residents can now raise egg-producing chickens on their property. Kelli Delaney has been pushing to revise the local ordinance, and trustees finally did so earlier this week.

"They are definitely more lenient. I still believe them having a right to tell us we can or cannot own birds that produce food for our families is a little ridiculous, but I feel like we're headed in the right direction," Delaney said.

Residents living on .92 acres can now own up to eight hens. That's down from a five-acre minimum. A total of 12 chickens are allowed on parcels between one and five acres.

"It went from about three percent of homeowners, they were saying, to about 40 percent now would qualify to own hens under the new change," Delaney added. "I don't know the average, but that's quite an increase. However, I personally was not affected by the change."

That's because Delaney lives on less than one acre. She remains hopeful the threshold for chickens in Brighton Township can be lowered further in the future.

"I just kind of find it silly with those parameters, they were trying to say people in neighborhoods, regardless of your acreage, could not own hens. I did fight to have that removed," she says.

"So, a little hypocritical still, but at least more people are within the coding now. Technically, if I can't own them, the house three doors down from me can."

Meanwhile, legislation co-sponsored by Howell State Rep. Jason Woolford that would lower the threshold to just a quarter acre to allow more chicken coops statewide, has yet to see a vote in Lansing.