Keeping hens · State rules

Can you keep backyard chickens in Kansas?

Kansas cities, by ordinance, and counties, by resolution, may adopt zoning regulations (K.S.A. 12-753), so check yours before you get hens. Whether keepers must register wasn't established.

Read from 13 official sources24 passages quotedChecked October 24, 2026

At a glance

Registering your flock

Not established

Where hens can live

Set locally

Bird-flu housing orders

Status needs rechecking

Welfare rules

Rule with conditions
Set locally

Who decides where hens can live

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

  • A city, by ordinance, and a board of county commissioners, by resolution, may adopt zoning regulations, including rules on the location, use and appearance of buildings, structures and land for residential, commercial, industrial and other purposes.

No statewide permission or prohibition on keeping chickens is established by this finding. Your city, by ordinance, or your county, by resolution, may adopt zoning regulations, so check with them. This page names the state law, not their own ordinances or resolutions, and doesn't cover HOA, rooster or setback rules.

Registration: not established in the state sources we read.

The law's own words are quoted under state 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 Kansas's state law, 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 or state 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

Not established from the sources checked

Jurisdiction: Kansas

Applies to: The Kansas animal health commissioner’s authority to set up premises registration under K.S.A. 47-674, as checked on 24 October 2026.

Outside this finding's scope

  • Whether Kansas requires backyard poultry keepers to register was not established. The Kansas Department of Agriculture’s website and the Kansas Administrative Regulations were not checked in this research, so no registration rule or agency page was read.

What the checked sources say

  • State law lets the animal health commissioner, subject to subsection (d) of K.S.A. 47-674, make rules, define premises where animals are located, and develop and run a voluntary premises registration and animal identification and tracking system for Kansas.

Authority: Not established from the sources checked.

Fee: Not established from the sources checked.

The official wording

  • subject to the provisions of subsection (d), to promulgate rules and regulations, to define premises where animals are located and to develop and implement a voluntary premises registration and animal identification and tracking system for Kansas.

    K.S.A. 47-674(a), closing · Checked

  • Program for registering premises where animals located; voluntary premises registration and animal identification and tracking system; development and implementation by animal health commissioner.

    K.S.A. 47-674, section heading · 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 2026-10-24

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

Conditions apply to this finding

Uses housing orders in this scope: Yes, according to the checked evidence, within the limits listed under “Outside this finding’s scope” below.

Jurisdiction: Kansas

Applies to: Quarantine, separation and isolation powers of the Kansas animal health commissioner over contagious or infectious diseases of domestic animals, including poultry, under K.S.A. 47-610, 47-611 and 47-635.

Outside this finding's scope

  • These powers do not in terms require birds to be kept indoors, and this finding does not establish that any quarantine or order applies now.

What the checked sources say

  • The animal health commissioner must protect the state’s domestic animals, which for these sections include poultry and birds, from contagious or infectious diseases, and may set and enforce such quarantine, sanitary and other regulations as necessary.
  • When the commissioner decides a quarantine is needed, the governor proclaims its boundary and the commissioner’s orders and rules, and the proclamation is published in the Kansas register. For a quarantine limited in extent, the commissioner may instead give whatever notice the commissioner considers enough to make it effective.
  • Within a quarantine, the commissioner gives and enforces directions on separating, isolating, handling, treating, feeding and caring for diseased animals, exposed animals and the other animals in the quarantine.
  • An owner or person in charge of a domestic animal who finds or has reason to believe it has a contagious or infectious disease must report this to the animal health commissioner immediately.
  • Current mandatory housing status remains unconfirmed.
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 state animal health commissioner is hereby directed to protect the health of domestic animals of the state from all contagious or infectious diseases and for this purpose is hereby authorized and empowered to establish, maintain and enforce such quarantine, sanitary and other regulations as necessary.

    K.S.A. 47-610, first sentence · Checked

  • Construction of K.S.A. 47-610 through 47-635.

    K.S.A. 47-635, section heading · Checked

  • The provisions of this act shall include all contagious or infectious diseases among all kinds of domestic animals, including, but not limited to, horses, mules, asses, cattle, sheep, goats, llamas, swine, dogs, cats, poultry, birds,

    K.S.A. 47-635, first sentence, opening · Checked

  • When the animal health commissioner determines that a quarantine and other regulations are necessary to prevent the spread among domestic animals of any contagious or infectious disease, the commissioner shall notify the governor of such determination, and the governor shall issue a proclamation announcing the boundary of such quarantine and the orders and rules and regulations prescribed by the commissioner.

    K.S.A. 47-611(a), first sentence · Checked

  • Such proclamation shall be published in the Kansas register, except that the commissioner, if the area affected by the quarantine is limited in extent, may dispense with the proclamation of the governor and give such notice as the commissioner shall deem sufficient to make the quarantine effective.

    K.S.A. 47-611(a), second sentence · Checked

  • shall give and enforce such directions, rules and regulations as to separating, isolating, handling and treating, feeding and caring for such diseased animals, animals exposed to the disease and animals within the quarantine which have not been immediately exposed,

    K.S.A. 47-611(d), middle · Checked

  • It shall be the duty of the owner or person in charge of any domestic animal or animals who discovers, or has reason to believe that any domestic animal owned by such person or in such person's charge or keeping is affected with any contagious or infectious disease, to immediately report such fact or belief to the animal health commissioner.

    K.S.A. 47-622, first sentence · Checked

Small-flock welfare minimums

Conditions apply to this finding

Jurisdiction: Kansas

Applies to: Anyone with physical custody of an animal in Kansas, under the cruelty statute K.S.A. 21-6412 as amended in 2026; for this statute an animal is every living vertebrate except a human being.

Outside this finding's scope

  • For farm animals, meaning animals raised on a farm or ranch and used or intended for use as food or fiber, the statute does not apply to normal or accepted animal husbandry practices, including normal and accepted slaughter practices, the careful or thrifty management of one’s herd or animals, and animal care practices common in the industry or region. Whether a backyard flock counts as farm animals was not established.
  • The statute also does not apply to normal or accepted veterinary practices or to bona fide experiments by commonly recognized research facilities.
  • This finding is not a complete welfare code and sets no numerical space standard.
  • This summary does not list every exception in K.S.A. 21-6412.

What the checked sources say

  • It is cruelty to animals for a person with physical custody of an animal to knowingly fail to provide the food, potable water, protection from the elements, opportunity for exercise and other care that kind of animal needs for its health or well-being. This offence is a class A nonperson misdemeanor, subject to the exception in subsection (b)(2)(B).
  • House Bill 2413 amended the statute with effect from July 1, 2026, and the amended text keeps this duty.

The official wording

National or state rules on keeping poultry

Conditions apply to this finding

Jurisdiction: Kansas

Applies to: Kansas cities’ and counties’ power to adopt zoning regulations under K.S.A. 12-741 and 12-753, and the agricultural-use limit in K.S.A. 12-758(b) on county zoning regulations and on city regulations adopted under K.S.A. 12-715b.

Outside this finding's scope

  • No statewide permission or prohibition on keeping chickens is established by this finding. Your city, by ordinance, or your county, by resolution, may adopt zoning regulations, so check with them. This page names the state law, not their own ordinances or resolutions, and doesn't cover HOA, rooster or setback rules.
  • The agricultural-use limit in K.S.A. 12-758(b) names only regulations adopted by a county under the zoning act and by a city under K.S.A. 12-715b (not read); the sections read do not define agricultural purposes, so whether a backyard flock is an agricultural use outside those regulations was not established.

What the checked sources say

  • K.S.A. 12-741 et seq. is enabling legislation for planning and zoning laws and regulations made by cities and counties to protect public health, safety and welfare.
  • A city, by ordinance, and a board of county commissioners, by resolution, may adopt zoning regulations, including rules on the location, use and appearance of buildings, structures and land for residential, commercial, industrial and other purposes.
  • Except for flood plain regulations in designated flood plains, regulations adopted by a city under K.S.A. 12-715b or by a county under the zoning act do not apply to the use of land for agricultural purposes, or to putting up or keeping buildings on it for those purposes, while the land and buildings are used for agricultural purposes and not otherwise. Senate Bill 418 amended this section with effect from July 1, 2026, and kept this rule.

The official wording

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

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Common questions

Do I have to register backyard chickens in Kansas?
Registration: not established. The finding covers: The Kansas animal health commissioner’s authority to set up premises registration under K.S.A. 47-674, as checked on 24 October 2026. Outside this finding's scope: Whether Kansas requires backyard poultry keepers to register was not established. The Kansas Department of Agriculture’s website and the Kansas Administrative Regulations were not checked in this research, so no registration rule or agency page was read.
Can I keep chickens in my backyard in Kansas?
The state law we read gives a named local body its own powers over where hens can live. A city, by ordinance, and a board of county commissioners, by resolution, may adopt zoning regulations, including rules on the location, use and appearance of buildings, structures and land for residential, commercial, industrial and other purposes. No statewide permission or prohibition on keeping chickens is established by this finding. Your city, by ordinance, or your county, by resolution, may adopt zoning regulations, so check with them. This page names the state law, not their own ordinances or resolutions, and doesn't cover HOA, rooster or setback rules. 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 Kansas?
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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