Keeping hens · National rules

Can you keep backyard chickens in China?

Registration: conditions apply, for the keepers covered below. What we found on bird flu, welfare and the keeping rule follows, including what we couldn't establish.

Read from 6 official sources29 passages quotedChecked October 29, 2026

At a glance

Registering your flock

Conditions apply

National keeping rule

Rule identified

Bird-flu housing orders

Status needs rechecking

Welfare rules

Rule identified

A sourced reading of national law in China, 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: China

Applies to: Founders of farms that keep livestock and poultry listed in the national genetic-resources catalogue at an independent, fixed site and reach the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs scale standard (Animal Husbandry Law Arts. 2, 39; Filing Measures Art. 2).

Outside this finding's scope

  • Household keepers (畜禽养殖户) below the standard are not covered by the farm filing; their epidemic-prevention and manure requirements are set by provincial agriculture departments (Animal Husbandry Law Art. 39(4)), which were not read. Fees were not established; an unknown fee does not mean filing is free.

What the checked sources say

  • Farm founders file the farm's name, address, breeds and scale with the county agriculture and rural affairs department and obtain an identification code (Animal Husbandry Law Art. 39(2), as revised 30 October 2022).
  • Founding a farm without filing is ordered corrected and may be fined up to 10,000 yuan (Art. 86).
  • Units and individuals keeping animals, poultry included, must carry out compulsory immunisation under the compulsory immunisation plan and technical norms (Animal Epidemic Prevention Law Arts. 3, 17, as revised 22 January 2021); the plan itself was not read.

Thresholds

  • Laying hens (蛋鸡): farms with an inventory of 2,000 or more must file, scale being measured by the farm's designed production capacity (MARA Announcement No. 927, in force 1 September 2025; Filing Measures Art. 12).

Authority: County-level agriculture and rural affairs departments (Animal Husbandry Law Art. 39(2))

Fee: Not established from the sources checked.

The official wording

Bird-flu housing orders

Current status needs rechecking

Check the official current-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 2026-11-08

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

Not established from the sources checked

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

Jurisdiction: China

Applies to: Units and individuals in an infected zone defined after an outbreak of a class-one disease, which includes highly pathogenic avian influenza (Animal Epidemic Prevention Law Arts. 4, 38, 43).

Outside this finding's scope

  • No current order, zone or date is asserted here.
  • Whether these powers are used to require backyard poultry to be kept indoors was not established.

What the checked sources say

  • On an outbreak of a class-one disease, the local agriculture and rural affairs department at county level or above defines the infected point, infected zone and threatened zone and asks its government to blockade the infected zone (Animal Epidemic Prevention Law Art. 38 item 1, as revised 22 January 2021).
  • Local governments at county level or above then impose blockade, isolation, culling, destruction, disinfection, harmless disposal and emergency vaccination (Art. 38 item 2), and units and individuals in the infected zone must follow the control rules made (Art. 43).
  • Keepers who find infected or suspected animals must report them at once to the local agriculture department or animal disease control body (Art. 31).
  • The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs publishes national animal outbreaks (Art. 36).
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: China

Applies to: Keepers of livestock and poultry listed in the national genetic-resources catalogue (畜禽养殖者) (Animal Husbandry Law Arts. 2, 42, as revised 30 October 2022).

Outside this finding's scope

  • Selected duties only. No general animal-welfare statute was found among the national texts read (Animal Husbandry Law, Animal Epidemic Prevention Law).

What the checked sources say

  • Keepers must give their livestock and poultry suitable breeding conditions and a suitable living and growing environment (Animal Husbandry Law Art. 42).
  • Keeping them on rubbish dumps or with rubbish-dump material, and discarding or disposing at will of livestock and poultry that died of disease, are prohibited (Art. 43 items 3 and 4).

The official wording

National rules on keeping poultry

Rule identified for the scope below

Jurisdiction: China

Applies to: Anyone keeping chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, sheep, pigs or other livestock and poultry in the urban districts of cities set up under the state's administrative system (City Appearance and Environmental Sanitation Regulations Arts. 2, 33, as revised 1 March 2017).

Outside this finding's scope

  • Keeping for teaching, research or other special needs is excepted (Art. 33).
  • Outside urban districts, whether chickens may be kept at a particular property was not established from the national texts read. Provincial governments may make implementing measures (Art. 43), provincial agriculture departments set household keepers' requirements (Animal Husbandry Law Art. 39(4)), and farms may not be built in no-keeping zones (Art. 40); check with the city sanitation authority and the county agriculture and rural affairs department.

What the checked sources say

  • In the urban districts of cities set up under the state's administrative system, keeping chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, sheep, pigs and other livestock and poultry is prohibited, except for teaching, research or other special needs (Art. 33, in the text as revised 1 March 2017; later amendments were not checked).
  • In the same 2017 text, keeping livestock or poultry that affects city appearance and sanitation can be ordered dealt with by a deadline or confiscated by the city sanitation authority, with a possible fine (Art. 35).

The official wording

Selling eggs in China? →License, small-flock line, markets and cartons, on their own page.Selling: License: depends

More countries we've checked

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Common questions

Do I have to register backyard chickens in China?
Registration: conditions apply. The finding covers: Founders of farms that keep livestock and poultry listed in the national genetic-resources catalogue at an independent, fixed site and reach the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs scale standard (Animal Husbandry Law Arts. 2, 39; Filing Measures Art. 2). Laying hens (蛋鸡): farms with an inventory of 2,000 or more must file, scale being measured by the farm's designed production capacity (MARA Announcement No. 927, in force 1 September 2025; Filing Measures Art. 12). Outside this finding's scope: Household keepers (畜禽养殖户) below the standard are not covered by the farm filing; their epidemic-prevention and manure requirements are set by provincial agriculture departments (Animal Husbandry Law Art. 39(4)), which were not read. Fees were not established; an unknown fee does not mean filing is free. Authority: County-level agriculture and rural affairs departments (Animal Husbandry Law Art. 39(2)).
Can I keep chickens in my backyard in China?
National city rules (in the text as revised 1 March 2017; later amendments not checked) bar keeping chickens in the urban districts of cities, except for teaching, research or other special needs. Elsewhere, the national sources we read don't settle it; check your local rules before you get hens.
Do I have to keep my hens indoors for bird flu in China?
Housing orders come and go, so we never show one as current. This page links the official status page to check today.

Allowed where you live? Then keep the records.

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