Keeping hens · National rules

Can you keep backyard chickens in Ghana?

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

Read from 6 official sources29 passages quotedChecked October 28, 2026

At a glance

Registering your flock

Not established

National keeping rule

Rule with conditions

Bird-flu housing orders

Status needs rechecking

Welfare rules

Rule identified

A sourced reading of national law in Ghana, 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: Ghana

Applies to: Owners or people in charge of animals liable to the diseases listed in the Diseases of Animals Act, 1961, which include fowl pest (Newcastle disease) and fowl pox.

Outside this finding's scope

  • Regulations made under the Act were not read.
  • The text read is the Parliament of Ghana's copy of the revised edition; its amendment history was not checked.

What the checked sources say

  • No standing duty to register a backyard flock was found in the Diseases of Animals Act sections read (ss.1-10 and 22). This does not prove that none exists.
  • Where the Minister declares an infected area, owners or people in charge of animals that can catch that disease must register in person at the nearest agriculture office and state how many animals they have (s.10(a)).
  • Owners or people in charge must tell the nearest veterinary authority at once about an animal that has died of, or is suffering from, a listed disease, or is suspected to have (s.3).

Authority: Veterinary Services Directorate, Ministry of Food and Agriculture

Fee: Not established from the sources checked.

The official wording

  • An owner or a person having the charge of an animal which has died of, or is suffering from a disease, or which the owner or that person has reason to suspect to have died of, or to be suffering from a disease, shall forthwith notify the nearest veterinary authority.

    Diseases of Animals Act, 1961 (Act 83), s.3 · Checked

  • an owner or a person having the charge of an animal capable of suffering from the disease by reason of an outbreak of which the area has been declared to be an infected area, shall forthwith personally register at the nearest agriculture office in the district or at the prescribed office,

    Diseases of Animals Act, 1961 (Act 83), s.10(a) · Checked

  • and shall state the number of animals owned by the owner or that person or of which the owner or that person is in charge, and the area where the animals feed

    Diseases of Animals Act, 1961 (Act 83), s.10(a) · Checked

  • fowl pest (Newcastle disease), fowl-typhoid, bacillary white diarrhoea, fowl paralysis, tuberculosis, fowl pox, African swine fever, African horse sickness, and any other disease of an epizootic character which the Minister under section 1 declares to be a disease within the meaning of this Act;

    Diseases of Animals Act, 1961 (Act 83), s.22, definition of disease · Checked

  • Where a disease breaks out in a district, an area, or a place the Minister may by executive instrument, declare the district, area or place, or a portion of the district, area, or place to be an infected area within the meaning of this Act;

    Diseases of Animals Act, 1961 (Act 83), s.2 · 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 2026-10-28

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: Ghana

Applies to: Animals liable to the diseases listed in, or declared under, the Diseases of Animals Act, 1961.

Outside this finding's scope

  • No order requiring backyard flocks to be housed was found in the sources read (Diseases of Animals Act ss.1-10 and 22; the Ministry of Food and Agriculture's Veterinary Services page). This page does not say whether any order applies now.
  • Avian influenza is not named in the Act's list of diseases in the text read; whether the Minister has declared it a disease under section 1 was not found.

What the checked sources say

  • The Minister may declare a district, area or place an infected area by executive instrument where a disease breaks out (Diseases of Animals Act s.2), and may add other epizootic diseases by legislative instrument (s.1).
  • A veterinary authority may require an animal to be examined, disinfected or quarantined, and may have animals that were in contact with infected animals isolated (ss.8, 9(d)).
  • For current measures, check with the Veterinary Services Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
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.

  • The Minister may, by legislative instrument, declare that an epizootic disease not specifically mentioned in section 22 is a disease within the meaning of this Act;

    Diseases of Animals Act, 1961 (Act 83), s.1 · Checked

  • Where a disease breaks out in a district, an area, or a place the Minister may by executive instrument, declare the district, area or place, or a portion of the district, area, or place to be an infected area within the meaning of this Act;

    Diseases of Animals Act, 1961 (Act 83), s.2 · Checked

  • A veterinary authority may at any time require an animal to be examined, inoculated, sprayed, dipped, washed, or otherwise disinfected or to undergo a period of quarantine if the veterinary authority considers it necessary in order to prevent the outbreak or spread of disease.

    Diseases of Animals Act, 1961 (Act 83), s.8 · Checked

  • may cause an animal, which has been in contact with any other animal or carcass infected or suspected to be infected with disease, to be isolated in the appropriate place and manner;

    Diseases of Animals Act, 1961 (Act 83), s.9(d) · Checked

  • fowl pest (Newcastle disease), fowl-typhoid, bacillary white diarrhoea, fowl paralysis, tuberculosis, fowl pox, African swine fever, African horse sickness, and any other disease of an epizootic character which the Minister under section 1 declares to be a disease within the meaning of this Act;

    Diseases of Animals Act, 1961 (Act 83), s.22, definition of disease · Checked

  • The Mission of the Veterinary Services Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture is to ensure a stable animal health situation through the provision of quality animal health care services by both public and private sector veterinary practitioners to enhance livestock, poultry and companion animals’ production and productivity.

    Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Veterinary Services page, mission · Checked

  • Control of movement of animals by ensuring that only healthy animals are permitted to be moved from one area to another to prevent disease transfer.

    Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Veterinary Services page, functions · Checked

Small-flock welfare minimums

Rule identified for the scope below

Jurisdiction: Ghana

Applies to: Anyone, and for some duties the owner, of a domestic or captive animal; a domestic animal is one that is tamed, or has been or is being sufficiently tamed, to serve a purpose for the use of a person (Criminal Offences Act s.310).

Outside this finding's scope

  • The text read is the Parliament of Ghana's copy of the revised edition, whose notes to section 303 cite the Criminal Code (Amendment) Act, 1998 (Act 554); later amending Acts were not checked against these sections.

What the checked sources say

  • Do not cruelly beat, kick, ill-treat, over-load, torture, infuriate or terrify an animal, or, by wantonly or unreasonably doing or omitting to do an act, cause it unnecessary suffering; an owner must not permit this (s.303(1)(a), (b)).
  • An owner commits the offence of permitting cruelty by failing to take reasonable care and supervision to protect the animal from cruelty (s.303(2)).
  • Cruelty is a criminal offence (s.303(1)).

The official wording

National rules on keeping poultry

Conditions apply to this finding

Jurisdiction: Ghana

Applies to: Anyone who, without lawful authority or excuse, keeps animals at a place so as to endanger public health or cause the other harms listed in the Public Health Act, 2012 s.54.

Outside this finding's scope

  • This does not establish whether chickens may be kept at a particular property. Local Assembly bye-laws were not surveyed, apart from one Assembly given as an example, and the Local Governance Act, 2016 itself was not read.
  • The national texts' silence on poultry numbers is not permission to keep chickens.

What the checked sources say

  • Keeping animals at a place so as to impair or endanger the health of people living near or using that place is an offence unless done with lawful authority or excuse (Public Health Act, 2012 s.54).
  • Oforikrom Municipal Assembly states that section 181 of the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936) gives it power to make bye-laws; the Act itself was not read.
  • For example, Oforikrom Municipal Assembly's bye-laws, published in the Local Government Bulletin of 14 December 2020, limit poultry kept in a dwelling house in its area to 20 birds unless it authorises more where sufficient land is available. They apply only in Oforikrom.
  • Ask your local Assembly whether its bye-laws limit poultry keeping or require a permit.

The official wording

Selling eggs in Ghana? →Licence, small-flock line, markets and cartons, on their own page.Selling: Registration

More countries we've checked

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Common questions

Do I have to register backyard chickens in Ghana?
Registration: no rule identified. The finding covers: Owners or people in charge of animals liable to the diseases listed in the Diseases of Animals Act, 1961, which include fowl pest (Newcastle disease) and fowl pox. Outside this finding's scope: Regulations made under the Act were not read. The text read is the Parliament of Ghana's copy of the revised edition; its amendment history was not checked. Authority: Veterinary Services Directorate, Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
Can I keep chickens in my backyard in Ghana?
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 Ghana?
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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