Can you keep chickens in Town of Clinton, NJ?

The rules at a glance

Good to know

• The health code (Ch. 64 Art. II) lets anyone keep fowl with a permit and sets no lot size, but zoning lists poultry only as a 5-acre principal use; we apply the stricter zoning rule.
• Residential accessory uses allow shelters for only two domestic pets.
• Birds must be confined in a coop with an enclosed runway and may not be kept inside a home.
• This is the Town of Clinton, not Clinton Township.

What about ducks?

Probably only on 5 acres or more, but not spelled out. The Town of Clinton limits raising poultry to 5-acre properties and requires a Board of Health permit for any live fowl, but never defines either term or mentions ducks.

§ 88-52; §§ 64-12 to 64-16: "Agricultural uses, such as farms, orchards, plant nurseries and the raising of poultry and livestock, except hogs, on properties of five acres or more in size." Duck coops we build.

Building a coop in Town of Clinton?

Triano Farms builds custom, predator-proof chicken coops on-site across Hunterdon 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.