Can you keep chickens in City of Elizabeth, NJ?

The rules at a glance

Good to know

• The rule sits in the city sanitation code's list of public health nuisances, not in Title 6 Animals, which covers only dogs and hunting.
• The same paragraph bans keeping live swine, pigs and goats anywhere in the city.
• Coops, runways and any place fowl are kept must be kept clean and sanitary.
• More than 25 chickens, pigeons or other fowl needs a permit from the health division.

What about ducks?

Yes, within limits. Elizabeth's rule covers chickens, pigeons and other fowl alike: keep them at least 150 feet from neighbors' homes, and more than 25 birds needs a Health Division permit.

§ 7.44.020, paragraphs 21 and 22: "No person shall keep within the city a total of more than twenty-five (25) of chickens, pigeons or other fowl without a permit from the health division" Duck coops we build.

Building a coop in City of Elizabeth?

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