Keeping hens · National rules

Can you keep backyard chickens in Brunei?

The national sources we read don't settle registration. Within their areas, Municipal Boards control and supervise places for keeping poultry; the national keeping rule found is a straying offence for owners and people in charge of poultry. None of this is permission to keep chickens anywhere.

Read from 4 official sources26 passages quotedChecked November 1, 2026

At a glance

Registering your flock

Not established

Where hens can live

Set locally

Bird-flu housing orders

Status needs rechecking

Welfare rules

Not established
Set locally

Who decides where hens can live

The national law we read gives a named local body its own powers over where hens can live. What the checked sources say:

  • Within their areas, Municipal Boards control and supervise places for keeping poultry and may pass by-laws for that purpose (Municipal Boards Act, ss.4 and 5).
  • If you live in a Municipal Board area, ask the board whether its by-laws limit poultry keeping.

The Municipal Boards' by-laws were not read, and rules for places outside a Municipal Board's area were not established. No national rule on where or how many chickens may be kept was found. This is not permission to keep chickens anywhere.

Registration: no rule identified in the national sources we read.

The law's own words are quoted under national rules on keeping poultry below.

How to check: Look up the local rules where you live (the ordinances, bylaws or zoning of the body named here), or ask that office, before you get hens.

A sourced reading of national law in Brunei, 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: Brunei Darussalam

Applies to: People keeping or breeding animals, which under the Animal (Diseases and Quarantine) Act include birds.

Outside this finding's scope

  • The Act lets the Minister, with the Sultan's consent, make regulations that require anyone intending to keep or breed an animal to obtain a licence from the Director of Agriculture and Agrifood. The Attorney General's Chambers page for the Act lists no subsidiary legislation (read 1 November 2026), so no keeping licence or registration for chickens was identified.
  • This is not a finding that keeping chickens needs no licence anywhere: Municipal Board by-laws were not read.

Authority: Not established from the sources checked.

Fee: Not established from the sources checked.

The official wording

Bird-flu housing orders

Current status needs rechecking

Check the agency's own page (not a status page)

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 2026-11-01

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: Brunei Darussalam

Applies to: Owners of animals infected or suspected of disease, and animal owners in an area declared infected.

Outside this finding's scope

  • No standing rule requiring poultry to be housed during bird flu was found in the Act; the powers below act case by case.
  • This page does not say whether any order applies now.

What the checked sources say

  • Every owner or person in charge of an animal infected or reasonably suspected to be infected with disease must report it at once to an authorised officer or the nearest police station, and confine and isolate that animal and the animals in contact with it until an authorised officer arrives (s.28(1)).
  • The Minister may, by order published in the Gazette, declare part of Brunei Darussalam an infected area (s.37(1)); the Director of Agriculture and Agrifood or an authorised officer may then give animal owners there written directions, which may regulate the tying-up, isolation, segregation, movement or slaughter of animals (s.37(2) and (3)).
  • Current status is not shown here.
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.

  • Every owner or person in charge of any animal infected with or reasonably suspected to be infected with disease shall —

    Cap. 254, s.28(1) (opening words) · Checked

  • (a) immediately make a report to an authorised officer or to the nearest police station; and

    Cap. 254, s.28(1)(a) · Checked

  • (b) at once cause that animal and all other animals which have been in contact with it to be confined and isolated until the arrival of an authorised officer.

    Cap. 254, s.28(1)(b) · Checked

  • Whenever there is reasonable cause to believe that any disease exists amongst any animal in any part of Brunei Darussalam, the Minister may, by order published in the Gazette, declare that part to be an infected area

    Cap. 254, s.37(1) (opening words) · Checked

  • the Director or an authorised officer may give the owner or person in charge of any animal in that area such written directions as the Director or authorised officer may consider necessary to control and check the spread of the disease.

    Cap. 254, s.37(2) · Checked

  • (3) Directions issued under subsection (2) may —

    Cap. 254, s.37(3) (opening words) · Checked

  • (a) regulate the tying-up, isolation, segregation, movement or slaughter of animals in the infected area; and

    Cap. 254, s.37(3)(a) · Checked

  • (b) require the taking of any measure as may be specified by the Director or authorised officer.

    Cap. 254, s.37(3)(b) · Checked

Small-flock welfare minimums

Not established from the sources checked

Jurisdiction: Brunei Darussalam

Applies to: Any person, under the Miscellaneous Offences Act.

Outside this finding's scope

  • No poultry welfare minimums were found in the national texts read. The cruelty offence covers any animal, whether wild or domesticated (s.25(2)).

What the checked sources say

  • Cruelly beating, ill-treating, abusing or torturing any animal, or causing or procuring it, is an offence (Miscellaneous Offences Act, s.25(1)).

The official wording

  • Any person who cruelly beats, ill-treats, abuses, tortures, or causes or procures to be cruelly beaten, ill-treated, abused or tortured, any animal shall for every such offence be liable to a penalty of a fine of $1,000 or imprisonment for 3 months.

    Cap. 30, s.25(1) · Checked

  • In this section, “animal” includes any animal, whether wild or domesticated.

    Cap. 30, s.25(2) · Checked

National rules on keeping poultry

Rule identified for the scope below

Jurisdiction: Brunei Darussalam

Applies to: Owners and people in charge of poultry, which the Miscellaneous Offences Act counts as cattle.

Outside this finding's scope

  • The Minister may make regulations to prohibit or regulate keeping, breeding or feeding any animal in any private or public place (Animal (Diseases and Quarantine) Act, s.52(1)); none are listed for the Act.
  • The Municipal Boards' by-laws were not read, and rules for places outside a Municipal Board's area were not established.
  • No national rule on where or how many chickens may be kept was found. This is not permission to keep chickens anywhere.

What the checked sources say

  • An owner or person in charge who allows poultry to stray onto a public road or onto public or private property commits an offence, liable on conviction to a fine of $1,000 for each animal (Miscellaneous Offences Act, s.13(1); cattle includes poultry, s.2).
  • Within their areas, Municipal Boards control and supervise places for keeping poultry and may pass by-laws for that purpose (Municipal Boards Act, ss.4 and 5).
  • If you live in a Municipal Board area, ask the board whether its by-laws limit poultry keeping.

The official wording

  • In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires — “cattle” includes buffaloes, bullocks, bulls, cows, goats, sheep, pigs and poultry;

    Cap. 30, s.2 (definition of cattle) · Checked

  • Whoever being the owner or a person in charge of any horse, cattle, sheep, goat or pig allows such animal to stray upon any public road or upon any public or private property is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine of $1,000 in respect of each animal,

    Cap. 30, s.13(1) · Checked

  • The Minister may, with the consent of His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan, make regulations for the following purposes —

    Cap. 254, s.52(1) (opening words) · Checked

  • (a) to prohibit, either absolutely or subject to such conditions as the Director may determine, the keeping, breeding or feeding of any animal or type thereof in any private or public place;

    Cap. 254, s.52(1)(a) · Checked

  • (b) to regulate the keeping, breeding or feeding of any animal or type thereof in any private or public place; and

    Cap. 254, s.52(1)(b) · Checked

  • (c) to provide for the impounding of stray cats or dogs found in any public place.

    Cap. 254, s.52(1)(c) · Checked

  • No subsidiary legislation have been added yet.

    AGC page for the Animal (Diseases and Quarantine) Act, 'Subsidiary Legislation' tab · Checked

  • This duties of a Municipal Board shall be to take all lawful measures for the following purposes within the area subject to its control —

    Cap. 57, s.4 (opening words; the source prints 'This duties') · Checked

  • (c) the control and supervision of —

    Cap. 57, s.4(c) (opening words) · Checked

  • (iii) stables and cattle sheds and places for keeping sheep, goats, swine and poultry;

    Cap. 57, s.4(c)(iii) · Checked

  • For the various purposes described in section 4 and for the conduct of its own business, a Municipal Board shall have power to pass by-laws not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act or of any other Act for the time being in force

    Cap. 57, s.5 · Checked

Selling eggs in Brunei? →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 Brunei?
Registration: no rule identified. The finding covers: People keeping or breeding animals, which under the Animal (Diseases and Quarantine) Act include birds. Outside this finding's scope: The Act lets the Minister, with the Sultan's consent, make regulations that require anyone intending to keep or breed an animal to obtain a licence from the Director of Agriculture and Agrifood. The Attorney General's Chambers page for the Act lists no subsidiary legislation (read 1 November 2026), so no keeping licence or registration for chickens was identified. This is not a finding that keeping chickens needs no licence anywhere: Municipal Board by-laws were not read.
Can I keep chickens in my backyard in Brunei?
The national law we read gives a named local body its own powers over where hens can live. Within their areas, Municipal Boards control and supervise places for keeping poultry and may pass by-laws for that purpose (Municipal Boards Act, ss.4 and 5). If you live in a Municipal Board area, ask the board whether its by-laws limit poultry keeping. The Municipal Boards' by-laws were not read, and rules for places outside a Municipal Board's area were not established. No national rule on where or how many chickens may be kept was found. This is not permission to keep chickens anywhere. Look up the local rules where you live (the ordinances, bylaws or zoning of the body named here), or ask that office, before you get hens.
Do I have to keep my hens indoors for bird flu in Brunei?
Housing orders come and go, so we never show one as current. This page links the agency's own page to check; it is not a status page.

Allowed where you live? Then keep the records.

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