If you have chickens, ducks or quail, the Missoula City Council has set new fees for the privilege.

At Monday night's meeting the council heard opinions on revising the present city ordinance that would address how many, and what kinds of birds could be allowed to be kept within the city limits.

Ward Six Councilor Michelle Cares said the matter was brought to her by one of her constituents.

"A ward six resident got in touch with me about six months ago because they had been keeping ducks, and a neighbor had complained," Cares began. "They were hoping that the present ordinance could be changed to allow keeping ducks. I had seen other people keeping ducks in our community and I agreed with the resident that it was high time to bring ducks into our urban agriculture and chicken ordinance. Quail kind of tagged along, which was a lot of the discussion we had last night at council."

Cares said much of the discussion revolved around the fees to charge for keeping birds such as ducks and quail.

"Ducks went through pretty easy, but it was my impression that keeping ducks and quail would just be an alternative agricultural production method," she said. "There are about five quail eggs to one chicken egg, so you need more to get more bang for your buck."

As with chickens, the rules for ducks and quail apply to property owners with less than one acre.

"So, to have chickens, ducks, or quail is going to cost $30 for a three year permit," she said. "As far as we can tell, Animal Control has had very few complains about ducks and about 10 complaints about chickens a year, but as I understand it, it's not a big problem around our community."

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