Chickens come home to roost in NJ or is it for the birds?

Seems the latest obsession sweeping across New Jersey among suburban homeowners is...chickens. Yup.

Even though you can buy perfectly good eggs and chicken meat for that matter in the supermarket, people are building coops, cages and runs in their back yard to house chickens. In Eatontown, after the council passed an ordinance allowing for chickens to be kept in lots as small as 5,000 square feet, the mayor got out the veto pen.

The council subsequently overrode the vet and the chickens will now be coming home to roost. Mayor Dennis Connelly's objections were based on public health. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, backyard chickens are linked to salmonella outbreaks.

I have friends and family who have backyard chickens. My brother, the one who also raises bees, is now branching out into chickens. Maybe It's the fact that I've never gotten any honey from my brother, or maybe it's the fact that you can buy honey and eggs in stores, cheap that has me sympathetic to the anti-backyard chicken crowd. Where do you stand?