Keeping hens · National rules

Can you keep backyard chickens in Monaco?

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 sources35 passages quotedChecked November 4, 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 Monaco, 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: Monaco

Applies to: Poultry holders within Annex II of Ministerial Order No. 2017-101, the annex on direct supply by the producer of small quantities of hens' eggs to the final consumer.

What the checked sources say

  • Annex II says every poultry holder must keep an up-to-date register, keep it for at least three years and show it to Direction de l'Action Sanitaire agents on request. It is a record to keep, not registration with an authority. Annex II is about direct supply of eggs; whether the register reaches a keeper who does not sell eggs was not established.
  • The register covers, per flock: strain and distinguishing features, where the birds came from, entry and exit dates, numbers in and out, start and end of lay, and where spent birds went. For all flocks: the local public markets where eggs are sold, the average quantity on each, and other routes to the consumer such as on-site sale.
  • No duty to register a flock with an authority was found in the Monegasque texts read (Laws 1.128 and 1.330; Sovereign Ordinances 1.939, 1.940, 7.384, 8.808 and the 1909 municipal police ordinance; Ministerial Orders 2009-243, 2017-101, 2021-572).

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

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 2026-11-04

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: Monaco

Applies to: Owners and holders of animals of any species with or suspected of a contagious disease.

What the checked sources say

  • The 1909 municipal police ordinance says owners or holders of animals with or suspected of a contagious disease must tell the mayor at once, and the mayor orders the measures he considers useful to stop contact with healthy animals and the spread of the disease.
  • No text on bird-flu housing or confinement was found in the sources checked on 2026-11-04, and no official status page was found. Whether this power is the one that would be used for a bird-flu housing order was not established.
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.

  • Tout propriétaire ou détenteur d'animaux, quelle que soit leur espèce, atteints ou suspects de maladies contagieuses, sera tenu d'en avertir immédiatement le maire, qui fera constater par le vétérinaire inspecteur des abattoirs et marchés l'état des animaux malades ou suspects.

    Ordonnance Souveraine du 11 juillet 1909, art. 6, first paragraph · Checked

  • Le maire ordonnera et fera exécuter telles mesures qu'il jugera utile pour empêcher la communication des animaux malades avec ceux non malades et arrêter la propagation et le progrès de la maladie.

    Ordonnance Souveraine du 11 juillet 1909, art. 6, second paragraph · Checked

Small-flock welfare minimums

Rule identified for the scope below

Jurisdiction: Monaco

Applies to: Anyone who holds or looks after an animal (Law No. 1.128); those who rear or hold animals for food production, and pets and animals treated as pets (Sovereign Ordinance No. 8.808).

What the checked sources say

  • Under Law No. 1.128, a person holding or looking after an animal must keep it in places fit for its species that do not cause disease or suffering and give it the care its health and wellbeing need, on pain of the penalties in the Penal Code. Tethering with an unsuitable device is banned, and so is abandonment, except handover to an authorized animal-protection body or to private people who give it adequate living conditions.
  • Sovereign Ordinance No. 8.808 requires those who rear or hold animals for food production, domestic equines, and pets and animals treated as pets to keep them in good health and condition. Rearing or keeping must cause no avoidable suffering or harm to health.
  • Ministerial Order No. 2021-572 sets the conditions in its Annex III. For animals reared or held to produce food: healthy feed suited to age and species in sufficient quantity, access to water or other liquid, protection of outdoor animals from weather and predators where necessary and possible, daily inspection where a system needs frequent human attention, and prompt care for sick or injured animals.

The official wording

National rules on keeping poultry

Conditions apply to this finding

Jurisdiction: Monaco

Applies to: Anyone keeping an animal in Monaco; the tenant rule covers pets.

What the checked sources say

  • Law No. 1.128 says anyone may keep an animal, subject to safety, peace, hygiene and sanitation, public order and the rights of others, and to the duties and bans in its article 3. This is a general rule on animals, not a rule naming poultry.
  • Tenants and occupiers of homes may keep a pet if it causes no disturbance to others, no damage to the premises or building, and no harm to its hygiene or cleanliness.
  • The 1909 municipal police ordinance, read in its LégiMonaco version dated 16 November 2019, expressly forbids keeping pigs, sheep and other animals likely to cause infection in the town (art. 63). It does not name poultry; whether hens fall within it, and what area the town covers today, were not established.
  • The 1909 ordinance bans leaving livestock or other animals to roam in streets or promenades.
  • Planning, building and co-ownership rules and municipal orders on keeping poultry were not read.

The official wording

  • Sous réserve, dans les domaines de la sécurité, de la tranquillité, de l'hygiène, et de la salubrité, du respect de l'ordre public et des droits des tiers, toute personne a la faculté de détenir un animal en se conformant aux obligations et interdictions portées à l'article suivant.

    Loi n° 1.128, art. 2 · Checked

  • Tout locataire ou occupant de locaux à usage d'habitation a le droit d'y détenir un animal de compagnie, à condition que la présence de celui-ci ne soit cause, ni de troubles de jouissance ou de voisinage pour les locataires, occupants ou autres tiers, ni de dommages pour les locaux occupés ou l'immeuble,

    Loi n° 1.128, art. 4 · Checked

  • ou d'atteinte à l'hygiène et à la propreté de celui-ci.

    Loi n° 1.128, art. 4 (closing words) · Checked

  • Il est défendu de laisser vaguer dans les rues ou promenades des bestiaux ou autres animaux.

    Ordonnance Souveraine du 11 juillet 1909, art. 50 · Checked

  • Il est expressément défendu de tenir, dans la ville, des porcs, moutons et autres animaux susceptibles de causer de l'infection.

    Ordonnance Souveraine du 11 juillet 1909, art. 63 · Checked

Selling eggs in Monaco? →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 Monaco?
Registration: no rule identified. The finding covers: Poultry holders within Annex II of Ministerial Order No. 2017-101, the annex on direct supply by the producer of small quantities of hens' eggs to the final consumer.
Can I keep chickens in my backyard in Monaco?
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 Monaco?
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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