Keeping hens · National rules

Can you keep backyard chickens in Antigua and Barbuda?

The national sources we read don't settle registration or who decides where hens can live. Here's what they do say.

Read from 4 official sources70 passages quotedChecked November 2, 2026

At a glance

Registering your flock

Not established

National keeping rule

No rule identified

Bird-flu housing orders

Status needs rechecking

Welfare rules

Rule identified

A sourced reading of national law in Antigua and Barbuda, not legal advice. Local ordinances and zoning, HOA rules, and any local rooster or coop limits aren't covered here yet: check your local code before you get hens.

Keeping your flock

These findings cover the national scope stated below. They do not determine whether chickens are allowed at a particular home. City zoning, property restrictions and other local rules are outside this research.

Registering as a poultry keeper

No rule identified in this research

Jurisdiction: Antigua and Barbuda

Applies to: Animals under the Animal Health Act, 2017, where 'animal' includes birds and poultry.

Outside this finding's scope

  • No register of poultry keepers or flocks was found in the Animal Health Act, 2017. The Act tells the Veterinary Authority to set up a system for the identification and traceability of animals (s.24); whether such a system exists and reaches backyard flocks was not established. This does not prove that no registration applies.
  • Regulations, notices and orders in effect when the Act came into force continue in force unless they conflict with it or until they are replaced (s.57(3)); the earlier animal-disease regulations listed on the laws website were not read.

What the checked sources say

  • Ask the Veterinary Authority (headed by the Chief Veterinary Officer) whether any identification or registration applies to your flock.

Authority: Veterinary Authority (Chief Veterinary Officer)

Fee: Not established from the sources checked.

The official wording

Bird-flu housing orders

Current status needs rechecking

An official current-status link has not been established.

Orders can change between checks. A missed check or an expired order does not establish that no order applies.

Housing-order finding as checked on 2026-11-02

The scope and conditions below are a dated record, not confirmation of today's position.

No rule identified in this research

This does not establish that no authority can order poultry to be housed or confined.

Uses housing orders in this scope: Not established from the sources checked.

Jurisdiction: Antigua and Barbuda

Applies to: Animals, including birds and poultry, under the Animal Health Act, 2017; highly pathogenic avian influenza is listed as a notifiable disease in its Second Schedule.

Outside this finding's scope

  • No order or rule requiring backyard flocks to be housed was identified in the texts read. Infected-zone orders specify the duties of persons in the zone, but no housing duty for poultry was found. This page does not say whether any order applies now.
  • Regulations, notices and orders in effect when the Act came into force continue in force as if made under it, unless they conflict with it or until they are replaced (s.57(3)). Earlier animal-disease regulations listed on the laws website, including the Animals (International Movement and Disease) Regulations, 1993 and the 2003 Amblyomma regulations made under the repealed Animals (Diseases and Importation) Act, were not read.

What the checked sources say

  • Anyone who detects or suspects a notifiable disease must report the disease and symptoms immediately to the nearest Authority (Animal Health Act, 2017, s.12(4)).
  • A person with an animal that has or may have a notifiable disease must keep it separate from animals that are not diseased or suspected of being diseased and, as soon as possible and no later than twenty-four hours, give notice to the nearest veterinary inspector or the person in charge of the nearest police station (s.18(1)).
  • A veterinary inspector who suspects a notifiable disease on premises declares a provisional infected zone and serves a notice of the preventive measures to apply there; once the Veterinary Authority confirms it, the Minister, on the Chief Veterinary Officer's recommendation, declares an infected zone by order published in the Gazette, and on the same recommendation the Minister declares an animal disease emergency by order published in the Gazette; an infected-zone order specifies the duties and responsibilities of persons in the zone (ss.13, 15).
  • Without a permit from a veterinary inspector, and subject to exceptions under the Act, no one may move into or out of an infected or containment zone any animal, animal product or other item covered by a movement restriction or prohibition there; under the Act 'animal' includes eggs of any kind of animal (ss.19(1), 2).
  • To control or prevent animal disease, the Veterinary Authority may prohibit or regulate the movement of animals, animal products, persons and vehicles within, into or out of an infected, free or containment zone (s.21(a)).
  • For current measures, check with the Veterinary Authority and the Official Gazette.
Checked
Recheck due

Historical evidence, as checked

These quotations record what was checked on the dates shown. They do not confirm an order's current status.

Small-flock welfare minimums

Rule identified for the scope below

Jurisdiction: Antigua and Barbuda

Applies to: Any person who owns or is in charge of an animal; 'animal' includes birds and poultry (Animal Health Act, 2017, s.2).

Outside this finding's scope

  • Welfare regulations under the Act, if any, were not found in the lists of statutory instruments read.

What the checked sources say

  • Anyone who owns or is in charge of an animal must comply with animal welfare regulations and provide a sufficient and suitable diet, access to sufficient clean water, proper shelter and housing appropriate to the animal's behaviour and sufficient to protect it from unsuitable weather, veterinary care when needed, and humane care and treatment (Animal Health Act, 2017, s.37(1)).
  • No owner or person in charge may permit another person to cause an animal unnecessary suffering (s.37(2)), and no person may torture, beat, injure, mutilate, neglect, treat with cruelty or overload an animal (s.36).

The official wording

National rules on keeping poultry

No rule identified in this research

Jurisdiction: Antigua and Barbuda

Applies to: Keeping animals under the Public Health Act, Cap. 353, where 'animal' includes bird.

Outside this finding's scope

  • No national limit on how many chickens may be kept, or where, and no permit for keeping them, was found in the texts read. The Central Board of Health may make regulations defining which animals may be kept in the City or parts of it, and on the conditions for keeping animals in the City or elsewhere in Antigua and Barbuda (s.31); whether any such regulation covers poultry was not established.
  • The national texts' silence on poultry is not permission to keep chickens.

What the checked sources say

  • Any animal kept so as to be a nuisance or injurious to health is a nuisance to be dealt with summarily under the Public Health Act (s.20(d)).
  • Receptacles used to provide drinking water for animals or poultry must be such as can be quickly and completely emptied at any time (Infectious Diseases (Yellow Fever) Regulations, reg. 7; the regulations apply throughout Antigua and Barbuda, reg. 3).
  • In the City of Saint John's, no one may keep pigeons without the written authority of the Central Board of Health (St. John's City By-Laws, by-law 9(8)).

The official wording

This does not establish that keeping is unrestricted or that all rules are local.

Selling eggs in Antigua and Barbuda? →Licence, small-flock line, markets and cartons, on their own page.Selling: Licence: not stated

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Common questions

Do I have to register backyard chickens in Antigua and Barbuda?
Registration: no rule identified. The finding covers: Animals under the Animal Health Act, 2017, where 'animal' includes birds and poultry. Outside this finding's scope: No register of poultry keepers or flocks was found in the Animal Health Act, 2017. The Act tells the Veterinary Authority to set up a system for the identification and traceability of animals (s.24); whether such a system exists and reaches backyard flocks was not established. This does not prove that no registration applies. Regulations, notices and orders in effect when the Act came into force continue in force unless they conflict with it or until they are replaced (s.57(3)); the earlier animal-disease regulations listed on the laws website were not read. Authority: Veterinary Authority (Chief Veterinary Officer).
Can I keep chickens in my backyard in Antigua and Barbuda?
The national sources we read don't settle it, though they name the bodies shown under “National rules on keeping poultry” on this page. Check your local rules before you get hens.
Do I have to keep my hens indoors for bird flu in Antigua and Barbuda?
Housing orders come and go, so we never show one as current. We haven't confirmed an official current-status page for it.

Allowed where you live? Then keep the records.

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