Like a mother hen, too often government is over-protective in way too many aspects of our business, so it’s refreshing when a governmental entity decides to cock its ear, listen to its constituents and possibly ease up a bit on its regulations.

That’s what the city of Covington has done with ordinances pertaining to residents keeping chicken and other fowl. The city has agreed to temporarily rescind a requirement that the birds can only be cooped up on lots of three or more acres and is considering a less-restrictive measure that would give free range to city residents who want to keep chickens on smaller properties.

The city agreed to the move at the request of David Corley, who keeps nine chickens on his quarter-acre lot. You can see a video of Corley and his birds and read about him, too.

Reason prevailed all around, which doesn’t always happen when government is involved.

Corley’s neighbors had cried foul about his roosters, but Corley didn’t go off half-cocked. He showed he was reasonable and got rid of the nuisance birds.

And instead of squawking and saying the law is the law, the city showed it was agreeable and responsive in its response to Corley’s request to keep his hens.

The city noted that other municipalities allow residents to keep fowl on smaller lots and will scramble to see how it can redraft its ordinances in a similar manner.