Rules and Regulations

There are no national rules or regulations in the UK that stop you from keeping small numbers (less than 50) chickens however there are some regulations to check first.

Rules-and-regulations-keeping-chickens

  • DEFRA: You are allowed to keep up to 50 chickens on your land without registering with DEFRA, however after the avian influenza outbreaks, a poultry register was set up in 2005 and you are required to register if you keep more than 50 poultry on the premises – so you need to take into consideration any other poultry you have. There is more information on my page: DEFRA: The Poultry Register
  • By-Laws: There are occasionally by-laws for certain properties that prevent people from keeping livestock. Check with your local council that this doesn’t apply to you.
  • Covenants: There are sometimes covenants put in place by housing authorities and councils to stop tenants from keeping chickens at their property. This seems to be a local decision as there are no national restrictions.
  • House Deeds: Again, the deeds of some properties may state that you are not allowed to keep chickens (again, often stated as keeping livestock). If your property is free of restrictions, you should be able to keep chickens without a problem, however do keep in mind that local residents may complain to the council about noise levels if you keep a cockerel.

There are a number of Laws, regulations and requirements that can affect you (in the UK) and I have created a number of sub pages to cover these briefly:

140 Comments

  1. my neighbours keep chickens at the back of my property in there garden, the smell is vile I dont think they clean coop out very often or when they do they throw the droppings in the garden the smell was vile in summer , surely there must be a law to protect these annimals cannot be healthy for the chickens

  2. I find myself in a farcical situation where my wife and I, as tenants of South Lanarkshire Council, are being taken to court this Thursday 5/12/13 with the proof hearing on 19/12/13
    to force us to get rid of two chickens, which were gifted to my granddaughter by the staff at Castlefield nursery in April last year after they were hatched in the classroom as part of an educational programme.
    We were given two hens and a cockerel and about October last year we were contacted by the housing department in regard to noise/anti-social behaviour. During November and December we sought advice from environmental health on how to restrict the crowing. This was unsuccessful and in January this year we rehomed the cockerel with a local farmer. I must point out that the housing department were advised at this time that environmental health had no concerns in terms of vermin, noise or anti-social behaviour in relation to the hens.
    We heard nothing more from housing and thought the matter was resolved until May/June this year when we were told that there were several complaints regarding the hens. This consequently proved to be untrue (the last complaint was about the cockerel crowing on 3/1/13) and when this was pointed out by a lawyer I had engaged, the housing department changed tactic and began pursuing it as a contractual matter although housing officers began unsuccessfully trying to solicit complaints about anti-social behaviour from all of my neighbours as recently as two weeks ago and they are all willing to confirm this. We then asked for retrospective permission to keep the hens but to no avail.
    Not surprisingly SLC legal department then opposed our application for legal aid by stating that ” a person of modest means would not spend money fighting this action.” However, we do intend to fight this any way we can, but would rather it was resolved amicably. We feel that we are being singled out for this action as we know of many tenants and indeed home owners who keep hens, rabbits, ferrets, birds and even dogs housed in their gardens.
    If, as we suspect, Slc has no power to force the removal of pets from the gardens of home owners, then we feel that we are being discriminated against for being council tenants.
    Can I also add that we get 2 fresh free range eggs every morning from the hens and that our grandchildren and indeed many of our neighbours children continue to have hours of educational fun in our garden, which can’t be a bad thing.
    Can anyone offer advice on how to fight this unjustifiable action.
    Please Help

    • I am sorry to hear of your dilemma. I am not able to comment on the legalities but would point out that Chickens are unfortunately classed as livestock, not as pets and this is where the law and rules of certain councils become a problem.

      Good luck and do let us know what the outcome is.

  3. I wish to complain about my neighbour they have 3 cockrels ,9 chickens in a small garden .They are very noisy ,the neighbour makes lots of noise early hours feeding them as left all day .The smell horrible .They crow many different times ,the family swear ,bang ,scream too .So in my situation I have no mercy as i have no peace .Although every situation must be dealt with independently .

    • I’m sorry to hear this. This page often gets comments from people who are not chicken keepers but frustrated with neighbours who are not being very fair or reasonable.

  4. Hello, I haven’t got any hens yet, but I was wondering is there any regulations to how much space you need for a number of bird’s ie one bird to the square meter or so ? If this is the case. Is it worked out by the square meter of your chicken run or hen house or both, many thanks Ronnie

    • There are regulations… But the space is related to farmed chickens and we all know the situation with battery hens, so I would never suggest such a small space. 1 meter squared is a good minimum per hen I would say.

  5. Having been informed of a woman and husband who after noticing the state of her neighbours hens and realising none of the animals were being cared for – water and feedless – took it upon herself to tender to these birds for a period of some 6 months. She had initially informed the RSPCA who seemingly failed to respond. Now, she has been told the birds are to be moved to the owner’s boyfriends ‘farm’. She wonders what she can do to prevent this as in her words, ‘all the kids in the neighbourhood have grown to love the hens and… She does not think the hens will be better treated at this ‘farm’ than they were previously by the owner. Is there anything she could do? (Personally I rather think not, but her concern is great)
    Thank you

    • Unless animal welfare / RSPCA can assist, I think not 🙁

      If they are going to a farm I hope they will be given free range but that has its risks with the fox..

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