Knowledgebase Collection
Urban Livestock
With interest in food security and local food systems on the rise, more and more communities are amending their animal control and zoning codes to allow the keeping of chickens, bees, miniature goats, and other nontraditional animals in residential districts.
The benefits of urban livestock include the production of fresh, local food products such as eggs, honey, and milk; the important pollination roles played by bees; and the companionship and educational aspects of keeping such animals as pets. However, potential downsides include noise, odor, and disease concerns, so appropriate regulations are important to protect communities from nuisance or public health complaints.
From this page you can search for resources that provide background, policy guidance, and examples of local regulatory standards for urban livestock from across the country. And you can filter these search results by various geographic and demographic characteristics.
APA Resources
Urban Micro-Livestock Ordinances: Regulating Backyard Animal Husbandry
This Zoning Practice article describes community-driven initiatives to sanction farm animals in urban areas and summarizes some common regulatory approaches aimed at ensuring these animals make good neighbors.
Urban Agriculture: Growing Healthy, Sustainable Places
This PAS report discusses urban agriculture at length, including the regulation of urban livestock. Appendix 6 provides examples of communities with urban livestock allowances in their animal control ordinances.
Urban Agriculture as an Emergent Land Use
This Zoning Practice article discusses animal husbandry within the larger context of urban agriculture in three different cities: Seattle, Chicago, and Somerville, Massachusetts.
What's Fowl Is Fair
This Planning article considers the opportunities and challenges of allowing residents to keep chicken coops in urban areas.
Regulating Urban Livestock
Most communities regulate residential livestock through animal codes that live outside of the land development regulations, though more jurisdictions are adding urban livestock provisions to their zoning codes. Some have adopted a comprehensive set of regulations addressing all types of farm animals, while others have focused only on one type of animal—for example, backyard chickens or bees.
When the keeping of larger farm animals such as horses and cows is allowed, it is limited to larger lots with adequate room for the stables and pastures needed to house these animals and mitigate their impacts. Greater numbers of, or smaller minimum lot sizes for, sheep and goats may be allowed based on their smaller sizes and lighter impacts. Swine (pigs) are often prohibited from residential districts altogether, though some communities allow miniature potbellied pigs to be kept as household pets.
Backyard chickens, and in some cases other fowl and pygmy (miniature) goats, are more widely permitted in residential districts. Typical ordinance provisions include limits on the number of chickens or goats per lot, minimum lot sizes (especially for miniature goats), prohibitions on keeping roosters or slaughtering chickens on-site, setbacks from property lines and neighboring structures, coop or enclosure design and construction standards, and waste disposal and feed storage requirements. Some ordinances address on-site sales of eggs, honey, or milk. In some communities, an annual license or permit is required for keeping urban livestock.
Local beekeeping standards typically establish limits on the number and location of hives based on the size of the lot or the zoning district where the bees are being kept. Many codes specify minimum distances between hives and adjacent buildings or property lines, require "flyway barriers" to prevent bees from flying to adjacent properties, and require on-site water sources to keep bees from flocking to neighboring swimming pools or bird baths. Typically, beekeepers must obtain a local permit in addition to state licensing requirements, and local governments reserve the right to inspect hives if needed.
Background Resources
Feeding the Locavores, One Chicken at a Time: Regulating Backyard Chickens
This article examines federal and state government regulation, nuisance law and restrictive covenants, and zoning and other local controls used to regulate backyard chickens.
Honey, It’s all the Buzz: Regulating Neighborhood Bee Hives
This article reviews practical regulations that promote backyard beekeeping while maximizing its benefits and minimizing its potential harm.
Illegal Fowl: A Survey of Municipal Laws Relating to Backyard Poultry and a Model Ordinance for Regulating City Chickens
This article reports on municipal chicken-keeping ordinances in the 100 largest U.S. cities and offers a model ordinances for use by municipalities.
Seeding the City: Land Use Policies to Promote Urban Agriculture
This report from ChangeLab Solutions offers a framework and model language for urban agriculture land-use policies that communities can tailor to their particular context and needs.
Welcoming Animals Back to the City: Navigating the Tensions of Urban Livestock Through Municipal Ordinances
This article studies ordinances from 22 U.S. cities that have recently revised their codes and analyzes how these cities regulate urban livestock.
Zoning Guidelines for Permitting Domestic Livestock Uses
This report analyzes the potential impacts of keeping livestock in residential areas and provides a list of model zoning definitions and specific standards.
Reports
Guidance and Recommendations for Connecticut Municipal Zoning Regulations and Ordinances for Livestock
This report offers guidance to Connecticut municipalities in drafting land use regulations related to livestock.
Non-Commercial Keeping of Bees, Chickens, and Goats
This student paper examines existing municipal efforts to regulate backyard bee, chicken, and goat keeping and proposes a model ordinance.
Residential Urban Chicken Keeping: An Examination of 25 Cities
This student report analyzes 25 chicken ordinances from across the U.S. and reveals trends in urban chicken-keeping regulations.
Seeding the City: Land Use Policies to Promote Urban Agriculture
This report from ChangeLab Solutions offers a framework and model language for urban agriculture land-use policies that communities can tailor to their particular context and needs.
Urban Chicken Ownership in Four U.S. Cities
This USDA report studied the keeping of backyard chickens in four U.S. metro areas.
Urban Livestock Ownership, Management, and Regulation in the United States: An Exploratory Survey and Research Agenda
This report describes the findings of a survey of 134 urban livestock owners in 48 cities to determine their motivations, management practices, and compliance with local ordinances.
Articles
Developing Regulations for Keeping Urban Chickens
This article from Cooperative Extension provides recommendations on developing regulations for urban chickens.
Feeding the Locavores, One Chicken at a Time: Regulating Backyard Chickens
This article examines federal and state government regulation, nuisance law and restrictive covenants, and zoning and other local controls used to regulate backyard chickens.
Honey, It’s all the Buzz: Regulating Neighborhood Bee Hives
This article reviews practical regulations that promote backyard beekeeping while maximizing its benefits and minimizing its potential harm.
Illegal Fowl: A Survey of Municipal Laws Relating to Backyard Poultry and a Model Ordinance for Regulating City Chickens
This article reports on municipal chicken-keeping ordinances in the 100 largest U.S. cities and offers a model ordinances for use by municipalities.
Of Backyard Chickens and Front Yard Gardens: The Conflict Between Local Governments and Locavores
This article explores justifications for the replacement of proscriptive urban agriculture bans with new prescriptive and permissive urban agriculture policies and regulations.
Regulating Backyard Slaughter: Strategies and Gaps in Municipal Livestock Ordinances
This article examines the animal policies in 22 U.S. cities and identifies five approaches to governing backyard slaughter.
Briefing Papers
Backyard Poultry: Implications for Public Health and Safety
This briefing paper summarizes the current science related to the public health and safety aspects of keeping a small flock of backyard poultry.
Suggestions for Ordinances Allowing Backyard Poultry
This bulletin lists recommendations for backyard chicken ordinances that address animal welfare, neighbor annoyance concerns, and environmental impacts.
Urban Agriculture and Backyard Beekeeping
This briefing paper provides background information related to urban beekeeping, and addresses the common concerns and benefits from health, environment, social, and economic standpoints.
Models
A Model Township Zoning Ordinance: Raising and Keeping of Chickens
This model ordinance written for Pennsylvania townships addresses the raising and keeping of chickens on a noncommercial basis at a residential property.
Illegal Fowl: A Survey of Municipal Laws Relating to Backyard Poultry and a Model Ordinance for Regulating City Chickens
This article reports on municipal chicken-keeping ordinances in the 100 largest U.S. cities and offers a model ordinances for use by municipalities.
Model Beekeeping Ordinance
This model beekeeping ordinance was prepared by the Minnesota Hobby Beekeepers Association.
Model Beekeeping Ordinance for Florida (Local and Municipal) Governments
This model ordinance was developed by the Beekeepers Association of Southwest Florida to regulate the keeping of honey bees.
Non-Commercial Keeping of Bees, Chickens, and Goats
This student paper examines existing municipal efforts to regulate backyard bee, chicken, and goat keeping and proposes a model ordinance.
Seeding the City: Land Use Policies to Promote Urban Agriculture
This report from ChangeLab Solutions offers a framework and model language for urban agriculture land-use policies that communities can tailor to their particular context and needs.
Guides
A Guide to Owning Chickens in Richmond, VA
This local guide summarizes basic information, program details, and permit application information for keeping chickens within the city of Richmond, VA.
A Guide to the Rules and Regulations and Best Practices for Keeping Backyard Hens
This local guide from Garner, NC, summarizes regulations and chicken care essentials.
Chickens and Ducks in Anne Arundel County, MD
This local guide from Anne Arundel County, MD, offers guidelines on keeping chickens and ducks within the county.
Food Producing Animals (FPA) Suggested Care Practices and Local Resources: Chickens, Ducks, and Goats
This local guide from Denver, CO, describes important considerations for residents before they decide to get backyard chickens, ducks, or goats.
Guidance and Recommendations for Connecticut Municipal Zoning Regulations and Ordinances for Livestock
This report offers guidance to Connecticut municipalities in drafting land use regulations related to livestock.
Keeping Animals in Boulder County, CO
This local guide from Boulder County, CO, summarizes the county's regulations for keeping animals, including chickens and bees.
Policies
Schaumburg, IL, Policy Manual
The village's policy manual includes a policy statement establishing a community bee garden on village-owned land.
Regulations
Alachua County, FL, County Code
The county's Unified Land Development Code addresses the noncommercial raising of poultry or livestock on parcels less than five acres.
Batavia, IL, City Code
The city's animal control ordinance allows up to 8 hens on single-family residential and school properties.
Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish, LA, Code of Ordinances
This consolidated city’s codified ordinance belongs to the Shared Mobility and Urban Livestock collections.
Beaverton, OR, City Code
The city code's public protection title allows for urban chicken-keeping on single-family residential parcels of at least 5,000 SF.
Beloit, WI, Code of Ordinances
The city's property maintenance code includes an ordinance regulating the keeping of chickens within the city.
Bozeman, MT, Code of Ordinances
This regulation belongs to the Accessory Dwelling Units, Green Stormwater Infrastructure, Group Housing, Historic Preservation, Marijuana-Related Uses, and Urban Livestock collections.
Related Collections
Food Systems
This collection catalogs resources that provide background, policy guidance, model ordinances, and examples of local and regional plan recommendations and development regulations for various types of activities and uses that promote food access or security from across the country.
Urban Agriculture
This collection catalogs resources that provide background and policy guidance or demonstrate how metropolitan localities are using plans, regulations, and programs to advance food production goals through urban agriculture uses.
Support for this collection was provided by the Growing Food Connections Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant no. 2012-68004-19894 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.