Check with your local authorities about the local laws and ordinances surrounding chicken keeping. Chicken keeping laws vary from place to place.
Some will allow only a certain number of hens to be keep in town, prohibit roosters, or make it mandatory that coops and cages be 50-100 feet away from any other structures or property, whether they are residential or business. It's not uncommon for poultry to be banned outright.
Here is a selection of chicken keeping regulations nationally:
Dallas regulations only specification on hen keeping is that you can't keep roosters.
Austin requires that coops be 50' away from buildings that are not your own.
Ft. Worth requires coops be at least 50' away from other buildings and limits the number of chickens allowed by property size.
In Houston you must have a special permit that gives the number of chickens and their purpose, whether they are for personal use or commercial.
Los Angeles allows for hen keeping with minimal interference.
Oakland, CA prohibits roosters.
San Diego requires that chicken feed containers be rat proof, that droppings be cleaned weekly, and limits the number of birds to 25.
Key West, Fl allows chickens, but you must clean the coop and cages every day and dispose of the waste to their guidelines which doesn't allow for use as fertilizer.
Charlotte, NC requires a 40 dollar permit to keep chick ens, limits the number by property size, limits the size of coops/pens, etc.
Concord, NC prohibits keeping hens.
In Columbus, Ohio you must have a minimum of five acres if you want to keep h ens. They must also be 100 feet away from roads or property lines.
Huntsville, Al allows chickens as long as you keep the 150 feet away from neighboring homes.
Homewood, AL requires that chickens be three hundred feet away from neighboring buildings and 100' away from any road.
Denver, CO has several requirements. You must place two signs in your yard for a month to find out if neighbors object, pay a $50 application fee, 100 dollar permit fee, and a 70 dollar annual fee and be subject to periodic inspections of the sanitary conditions of your flock.
Washington, DC requires you to get written permission from your neighbors and keep chickens at least fifty feet from other homes.
While some areas have no regulations against hens, they do give citations for disturbing the peace if your birds become too loud.
Check your local hen restrictions before starting a flock of your own.
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Visit Chicken Laws for more information on this topic. If you're considering building a chicken house coop, view How to Build a Chicken Coop .