Can you keep chickens in Borough of Emerson, NJ?

The rules at a glance

Good to know

• A license or permit from the Board of Health must be obtained before keeping any live poultry, even for noncommercial purposes.
• All poultry must be confined in coops or runs located apart from any dwelling.
• At most one bird per three square feet of usable coop floor space.
• Coops need concrete or other approved floors, roosts with drop boards, and weekly removal of droppings.

What about ducks?

Only in theory. Emerson's license rule covers all live poultry and fowl, so ducks need the same Board of Health license and 100-foot setbacks that almost no lot can meet.

§§ 291-6 to 291-21: "No person shall keep or maintain any live poultry, or fowl, even for noncommercial purposes, without first having obtained a license or permit for that purpose from the Board" Duck coops we build.

Building a coop in Borough of Emerson?

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