Can you keep chickens in Borough of Chester, NJ?
Chester Borough permits chickens as a farm-animal accessory use in all zones, but only if you meet sanitation, acreage, and property-line-buffer standards. There's no simple backyard-hen allowance with a set number.
The rules at a glance
| Chickens allowed | Yes, with conditions |
| Hens | No numeric limit (intensive poultry over 100 animals is a prohibited use) |
| Roosters | Not specified |
| Permit | Not specified (treated as a permitted agricultural use under land-development standards) |
| Coop setback | A boundary buffer between enclosures and adjoining properties is required, but no figure is stated for fowl |
| Lot size | No stated minimum for fowl (the 3-acre grazing rule applies only to horses and cattle) |
| Ducks | Not addressed in the code |
Good to know
- Zoning permits raising farm animals including fowl, provided proper sanitation, acreage, and boundary buffers are established.
- Specifics are set case by case against land-development standards, not a chicken ordinance.
- This is Chester Borough, distinct from Chester Township.
What about ducks?
Unclear. Chester Borough allows 'fowl' as a farm-animal use under sanitation and acreage standards, but never defines fowl or mentions ducks, so check with the borough.
§ 163-70L(12): "The raising and keeping of farm animals, including pets, pastoral farm animals (dairy and beef cattle, sheep and goats), swine, fowl, horses, ponies, and mules" Duck coops we build.
Building a coop in Borough of Chester?
Triano Farms builds custom, predator-proof chicken coops on-site across Morris 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 Morris County towns
Compare them side by side in the Morris 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.