Chickens OK in Detroit but not in Midland township

While homeowners in Michigan’s largest city are free to raise chickens, ducks and honeybees on their land, residents of the far-less populated Midland Township in the Mid-Michigan area face a legal ban.

Some township residents want to change that, and they say township officials stand in the way.

Residents of Detroit are free to raise up to eight chickens, or ducks, or a combination of the two, as of Jan. 31, thanks to a Detroit City Council 5-3 vote taken Nov. 12, 2024. James Tate, council pro tem, sponsored the legislation that lets residents have honeybees on site. Residents must pay an annual permit fee of $50 and comply with various regulations.

Midland Township, by contrast, forbids many residents to raise chickens on their land. The ban applies to anyone whose plot is less than five acres. Several residents used a Feb. 12 township board meeting to ask trustees to reverse the ban.

Area resident Jillian Willsey told Michigan Capitol Confidential that she and her husband moved to the outskirts of Midland to be more self-sufficient and to own chickens. She and her husband raised chickens for two years before being cited on Feb. 20, 2025, for illegally keeping chickens, according to a copy of a notice obtained by CapCon.

Willsey said she does not understand why the township wants to keep her from raising chickens.“Even Detroit allows chickens in residential areas now,” she told CapCon. Her neighbors, she said, are allowed to hunt on their own property.

Township resident Victoria Mehl also attended the meeting. She told CapCon the board was unkind to Willsey as she was making her remarks in the public comment period of the meeting. Board members would cut Willsey off, she said, and at times they did not let her finish her sentence.

Trustees said that the ban came after residents complained about chickens freely roaming about the township, according to a report in the Midland Daily News. Several people at the Feb. 12 meeting said they did not know about the ordinance, were fined and were forced to remove their animals from their properties.

Mehl told CapCon that Robin Holt, chair of the planning commission, told her she would need to pay $300 if she wanted trustees to consider changing the ordinance. CapCon called the township office’s main telephone line and verified the amount, which Mehl called exorbitant.

CapCon asked Detroit council member Tate about his city’s decision to allow residents to keep and raise chickens. The change was 10 years in the making, he said.

The strongest support for the change, Tate said, came from the Brightmoor neighborhood. Younger generations, he told CapCon, see an opportunity to produce their own food and educate others about agriculture and livestock.

Midland Township’s ban could be overruled if some legislators get their way. James DeSana, R-Carleton, has sponsored House Bill 4049. The bill, with 11 co-sponsors, would preempt local prohibitions on raising chickens. House Bill 4050 is a companion measure. Both are sitting in the House Committee on Agriculture.