Can you keep chickens in Borough of Bernardsville, NJ?
Bernardsville permits fowl only under "farming and truck gardening" in its roughly 5-acre R-1 and R-1A districts, requiring any coop to sit at least 300 ft from the street and 100 ft from any property line, with no head-count limit.
The rules at a glance
| Chickens allowed | Yes, with conditions |
| Hens | No numeric limit (regulated as farming) |
| Roosters | No specific provision |
| Permit | None specific to fowl (a zoning permit is required for structures generally) |
| Coop setback | No shelter for farm animals or fowl closer than 300 ft to any street or 100 ft to any other property line |
| Lot size | R-1 minimum lot area about 5 acres; the setbacks effectively require a very large lot |
| Ducks | Not addressed in the code |
Good to know
- Fowl is a listed use only in the large-lot R-1 and R-1A Residence Districts, not the smaller residence districts.
- The Board of Health animal rules cover only dogs, cats, and pigs; poultry is governed solely by zoning.
- The 300-ft street setback is the binding constraint.
What about ducks?
Probably only on large farm lots, but not spelled out. Bernardsville's farming rule covers 'farm animal or fowl' without defining fowl or mentioning ducks, so confirm with the borough.
§ LD-12-5.1c: "No building nor other shelter for keeping of any farm animal or fowl shall be permitted closer to any street than 300 feet nor closer to any other property line than 100 feet." Duck coops we build.
Building a coop in Borough of Bernardsville?
Triano Farms builds custom, predator-proof chicken coops on-site across Somerset County and all of New Jersey, sized to your flock and built to your town's rules.
In an HOA? The town allowing hens is not the same as your association allowing them. What an HOA can and cannot stop.
New to this? Start with how to raise chickens in NJ, or what a coop costs.
Chicken rules in nearby Somerset County towns
Compare them side by side in the Somerset County table.
Ready to keep your flock safe?
Tell us about your animals and your land. We'll design a coop built to last, on-site, just for you.