Keeping hens · National rules

Can you keep backyard chickens in Burundi?

Registration: conditions apply, for the keepers covered below. The national keeping rule follows; no bird-flu housing power or welfare rule was identified in the texts read.

Read from 3 official sources26 passages quotedChecked November 4, 2026

At a glance

Registering your flock

Conditions apply

National keeping rule

Rule identified

Bird-flu housing orders

Status needs rechecking

Welfare rules

No rule identified

A sourced reading of national law in Burundi, 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

Conditions apply to this finding

Jurisdiction: Burundi

Applies to: Every breeder or establishment raising animals; the animals covered include poultry-yard animals (Law 1/21 of 2018, arts 3, 4 and 35).

Outside this finding's scope

  • Article 4 is printed in the section on ruminants, while arts 18 and 35 apply registration to poultry and to all animals in art. 3. The poultry yard is defined as raising on a craft scale (art. 2(2°)) and art. 19 places urban family keeping under the law, but whether a household with a few hens must register was not established from Law 1/21 as read.
  • The ordinance that sets how to register was not read.

What the checked sources say

  • Register with the communal veterinary authority (art. 4); art. 35 gave owners of farms or establishments nine months from the law's promulgation (4 October 2018) to register with the local veterinary authority or hill administration.
  • At registration a breeder must show capacity to feed the poultry to the norms set by ministerial ordinance (art. 18).
  • The law, in force from 4 October 2018 (art. 39), gave the ministry and owners three years to comply (art. 37); no start date for that period appears in art. 37.

Authority: Communal veterinary authority (autorité vétérinaire communale)

Fee: Not established from the sources checked.

The official wording

  • Tout éleveur ou tout établissement pratiquant un élevage d’animaux est soumis à l’obligation de les faire enregistrer auprès de l’autorité vétérinaire communale.

    Loi 1/21, art. 4 (printed in Section 1 on ruminants) · Checked

  • Les propriétaires des exploitations ou des établissements ayant un élevage d’animaux visés à l’article 3 les font enregistrer auprès de l’autorité vétérinaire locale ou de l’administration collinaire dans un délai ne dépassant pas neuf mois à compter de la date de sa promulgation.

    Loi 1/21, art. 35 · Checked

  • L’éleveur doit prouver lors de l’enregistrement de son élevage ses capacités de nourrir la volaille en exploitation suivant les normes zootechniques définies par ordonnance du Ministre ayant l’élevage dans ses attributions.

    Loi 1/21, art. 18 · Checked

  • Les animaux d’élevage concernés par la présente loi sont les bovins, les caprins, les ovins, les porcins et les animaux de la basse-cour.

    Loi 1/21, art. 3 · Checked

  • Le ministère ayant l’élevage dans ses attributions et les propriétaires d’animaux visés à l’article 3 disposent d’un délai de trois ans pour se conformer aux dispositions de la présente loi.

    Loi 1/21, art. 37 · Checked

  • La présente loi entre en vigueur le jour de sa promulgation.

    Loi 1/21, art. 39 · Checked

  • basse-cour: endroits ou locaux où l’on élève, de façon artisanale, la volaille, les lapins et cobayes domestiques ;

    Loi 1/21, art. 2(2°) · Checked

  • En milieu urbain, un élevage familial de volailles, de lapins et de cobayes est autorisé en vertu de la présente loi et de la législation en vigueur en matière d’hygiène et d’assainissement.

    Loi 1/21, art. 19 · Checked

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 2026-11-08

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: Burundi

Applies to: Disease powers in the laws read (Law 1/21 of 2018).

Outside this finding's scope

  • No power to order poultry indoors because of bird flu was identified in the texts read. Law 1/28 of 24 December 2009 on animal health police is cited in the 2018 law, but its text was not read on an official host. The 2018 law's fence rule (art. 24) is a standing rule, not a disease order.
  • No official bird flu status page was found on the official pages read (ABREVPA, Presidency and agriculture ministry home pages). Nothing here says whether any order is in force.

What the checked sources say

  • In a contagious disease the veterinary authority may order isolation or slaughter of an impounded animal (Law 1/21, art. 31).
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.

  • En cas de maladie contagieuse, l’autorité vétérinaire peut ordonner l’isolement ou l’abattage de l’animal en fourrière.

    Loi 1/21, art. 31 · Checked

  • Vu la Loi n°1/28 du 24 décembre 2009 relative à la Police Sanitaire des Animaux Domestiques, Sauvages, Aquacoles et Abeilles;

    Loi 1/21, preamble · Checked

Small-flock welfare minimums

No rule identified in this research

Jurisdiction: Burundi

Applies to: National animal welfare rules reaching small flocks.

Outside this finding's scope

  • A word search of the 2017 Penal Code (archived copy, 21 July 2022) found no offence of cruelty to or neglect of one's own animals, and Law 1/28 of 2009 was not read. Laws 1/21 and 1/011 set housing and hygiene rules, not welfare standards, in the articles read.

What the checked sources say

  • The Penal Code punishes anyone who maliciously and needlessly kills or seriously wounds livestock or domestic animals belonging to someone else (Law 1/27 of 2017, art. 340).

The official wording

  • Est puni d’une peine de servitude pénale d’un an à cinq ans et d’une amende de cinquante à cent mille francs burundais, ou d’une de ces peines seulement, quiconque aura méchamment et sans nécessité, tué ou gravement blessé des bestiaux ou animaux domestiques appartenant à autrui.

    Code pénal, art. 340 · Checked

  • LOI N°1/27 DU 29/12/2017 PORTANT REVISION DU CODE PENAL

    Bulletin Officiel n°12ter/2017, title · Checked

  • La présente loi entre en vigueur le jour de sa promulgation.

    Loi 1/27, art. 648 · Checked

National rules on keeping poultry

Rule identified for the scope below

Jurisdiction: Burundi

Applies to: People keeping poultry, under Law 1/21 of 2018 and the Hygiene and Sanitation Code (Law 1/011 of 2018).

Outside this finding's scope

  • The two laws do not fit together on towns. The Code (May 2018) bans keeping all animals in urban and peri-urban quarters (art. 172). The later Law 1/21 (October 2018) authorises urban family poultry keeping under it and the hygiene legislation in force (art. 19) and repeals earlier contrary provisions (art. 38). Which rule governs a given town household was not established.
  • The ministerial ordinances on henhouse norms and urban family keeping were not read. Commune rules were not researched.

What the checked sources say

  • Permitted methods are permanent stabling, paddocking and organic farming, the last only with prior authorisation (art. 5, printed in the section on ruminants; paddocking is defined for ruminants, art. 2(9°)).
  • Poultry keepers house birds in a henhouse built to norms set by ministerial ordinance (art. 17).
  • Anyone holding poultry-yard animals encloses them in a place with a fence at least two metres high (art. 24); roaming in built-up areas, on public roads and on others' property is banned, pigeons excepted.
  • Under the Hygiene Code, domestic flocks may not exceed 50 fowl; exceptions are possible for traders and breeders supplying towns, with the local hygiene service's authorisation (art. 172). The cap is a ceiling, not a permission: the same article bans keeping in urban and peri-urban quarters. It follows the rules for those quarters and the villages next to them, so its reach beyond them was not established.
  • Manure from poultry keeping must be removed regularly (Hygiene Code art. 174).

The official wording

  • Les modes d’élevage autorisés sont la stabulation permanente, le paddocking et l’élevage biologique.

    Loi 1/21, art. 5 (article number missing in the print) · Checked

  • Les éleveurs de la volaille la logent dans un poulailler construit suivant les normes zootechniques définies par ordonnance du Ministre ayant l’élevage dans ses attributions.

    Loi 1/21, art. 17 · Checked

  • En milieu urbain, un élevage familial de volailles, de lapins et de cobayes est autorisé en vertu de la présente loi et de la législation en vigueur en matière d’hygiène et d’assainissement.

    Loi 1/21, art. 19 · Checked

  • Toute personne détenant les animaux de la bassecour les enferme dans un endroit entouré d’une clôture minimum de deux mètres de hauteur.

    Loi 1/21, art. 24, second paragraph · Checked

  • Dans les agglomérations, sur les voies publiques et dans la propriété d’autrui, la divagation des animaux de la basse-cour, à l’exception des pigeons est interdite.

    Loi 1/21, art. 24, first paragraph · Checked

  • Toutes les dispositions antérieures contraires à la présente loi sont abrogées.

    Loi 1/21, art. 38 · Checked

  • L’élevage de tous animaux, y compris sauvages retenus en captivité est interdit dans les quartiers urbains et périurbains.

    Code d'hygiène, art. 172 · Checked

  • Les élevages domestiques ne peuvent pas dépasser 50 gallinacés.

    Code d'hygiène, art. 172 · Checked

  • Des dérogations peuvent être accordées aux commerçants et éleveurs assurant le ravitaillement des villes, après autorisation du service d’hygiène local.

    Code d'hygiène, art. 172 · Checked

  • Les fumiers provenant des écuries, des étables, des bergeries, des porcheries, des élevages de volailles ou de petits animaux, doivent être évacués régulièrement.

    Code d'hygiène, art. 174 · Checked

  • La pratique de l’élevage biologique est soumise à une autorisation préalable dont les modalités d’octroi sont déterminées par ordonnance du Ministre ayant l’élevage dans ses attributions.

    Loi 1/21, art. 5, second paragraph · Checked

  • élevage des ruminants dans une prairie clôturée subdivisée en parcelles appelées paddocks

    Loi 1/21, art. 2(9°) · Checked

  • Dans les villages les jouxtant, l’élevage n’est permis que sous enclos, à l’exception de l’élevage de volaille.

    Code d'hygiène, art. 172 · Checked

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

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Common questions

Do I have to register backyard chickens in Burundi?
Registration: conditions apply. The finding covers: Every breeder or establishment raising animals; the animals covered include poultry-yard animals (Law 1/21 of 2018, arts 3, 4 and 35). Outside this finding's scope: Article 4 is printed in the section on ruminants, while arts 18 and 35 apply registration to poultry and to all animals in art. 3. The poultry yard is defined as raising on a craft scale (art. 2(2°)) and art. 19 places urban family keeping under the law, but whether a household with a few hens must register was not established from Law 1/21 as read. The ordinance that sets how to register was not read. Authority: Communal veterinary authority (autorité vétérinaire communale).
Can I keep chickens in my backyard in Burundi?
The national sources we read set the limits shown under “National rules on keeping poultry” on this page, and don't settle the rest. Check your local rules before you get hens.
Do I have to keep my hens indoors for bird flu in Burundi?
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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