No yolks this time.

The Austin City Council will once again discuss an ordinance to allow residents within city limits to raise chickens after Council member Jeremy Carolan reintroduced the issue Monday during a council work session.

What’s more, it appears council members and Mayor Tom Stiehm will give serious consideration to an ordinance allowing three to six chickens to be raised on residential property.

“We treated it kind of lightly last time,” Stiehm said. “We should at least take a look at it.”

The ordinance may have more support than last time after Council members Janet Anderson, Michael Jordal, Judy Enright and Carolan voted to bring the issue back before council.

The council tabled the ordinance last June with a 4-3 vote.

Enright sided with Steve King, former Council member Roger Boughton and Jeff Austin to drop the issue then, but Enright looks to have changed her opinion about chickens.

“You’ve got to build the coop, you’ve got to feed the chickens,” she said. “Only really dedicated people are going to do this.”

Stiehm also looks to have changed his mind after he discussed the issue with other cities around the state and found little to no issues with their poultry policies.

Yet King and others may remain firm on keeping Austin neighborhoods chicken-free.

“It’s a property issue,” King said. “It’s a property value issue.”

Raising chickens has become a popular issue for local governments to tackle in recent years as dozens of communities across Minnesota have passed urban chicken ordinances.

A chicken ordinance is in place in Albert Lea and has been for several years. Rochester, Winona and Mankato have chicken ordinances as well. In the Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul both have ordinances, as do smaller suburbs like Eagan, Farmington, Burnsville, Rosemount and Maplewood. Even places like Duluth and Brainerd have chicken ordinances.

The council asked city staff to gather sample chicken ordinances for a future discussion.