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.
- 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:
Are you allowed to keep a cockerel or a rooster in your back garden in the middle of a built up housing area?
If there are no covenants on your property to stop you keeping livestock (chickens are classed as livestock) then yes… But a cockerel will be noisy and then you are likely to have complaints about noise and it’s pretty much a forgone conclusion that a complaint about a cockerel will go one way – in favour of the person complaining.
What are the rules on how close a poultry farm (of more than 50 chickens) can be to residential properties? In terms of health hazards of poultry dust.
I am not sure. I would think this wouldn’t be rules specific to poultry but more to do with environmental health. Your best bet would be to call DEFRA to see if there are any laws / regulations that would apply.
We live in a council place and are allowed to keep chickens
Do you know if we can sell extra ones to our neighbours please?
Thanks
Yes you can – you cannot sell to commercial establishments – in other words where they are reselling, like restaurants or shops.
would i be able to keep 6 chickens in harrow
would harrow council allow that
Possibly – you do need to check with the Council though if there is any doubt.
We have 9 hens and live in South Lanarkshire. The hens are quite entertaining and fun to watch roaming in the back yard. Needless to say the eggs are great, and my wife gave them as Christmas presents. They are Araucana chickens, so the blue eggs were well received.
I use to clean there coop daily, mainly poo picking, but now I give it a complete new set of bedding each week. There is no significantly lingering smell.