Can you keep chickens in City of Port Republic, NJ?

The rules at a glance

Good to know

• The code defines a farm as at least 5 acres used for raising livestock or poultry; commercial poultry production is excluded from that definition.
• The Agricultural-Residential zone permits customary farming operations on 5-acre minimum lots; the Pinelands Village Agricultural zone permits agriculture.
• Rural Residential and Pinelands Village Residential zones allow truck farming, which the code says does not include raising poultry.
• Any use not listed for a zone needs a use variance (§ 160-7). The Animals chapter covers dogs, cats, pet waste and wildlife feeding only.

What about ducks?

Probably treated like chickens, as a farm use in the Agricultural-Residential and Pinelands Village Agricultural zones (5-acre farms), but the code never defines poultry or mentions ducks. Confirm with the city.

§ 160-6 (Farm; Truck farming); § 160-49: "the raising of farm animals such as poultry, horses, cattle, sheep and swine" Duck coops we build.

Building a coop in City of Port Republic?

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