Keeping hens · State rules

Can you keep backyard chickens in New York?

New York town and village boards are empowered to regulate land use (Town Law s. 261, Village Law s. 7-700, archived 2025), so check yours; a town's power stops at village and city limits. City zoning law wasn't read.

Read from 13 official sources33 passages quotedChecked October 25, 2026

At a glance

Registering your flock

Conditions apply

Where hens can live

Set locally

Bird-flu housing orders

Status needs rechecking

Welfare rules

Rule identified
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 town board may, by local law or ordinance, regulate and restrict the location and use of buildings, structures and land for trade, industry, residence or other purposes, but only in the part of the town outside any incorporated village or city. A village board of trustees may do the same by local law.
  • Every county, city, town or village may adopt local laws, not inconsistent with the state constitution or any general law, on the government, protection, order, conduct, safety, health and well-being of people or property within it; a town’s power covers only its area outside its villages.

No statewide permission or prohibition on keeping chickens is established by this finding. Your town or village board is empowered to regulate land use, and your county, city, town or village has power to adopt local laws, so check with them. Local governments must not unreasonably restrict or regulate farm operations within agricultural districts, contrary to the purposes of the Agriculture and Markets Law's agricultural districts article, unless it can be shown that public health or safety is threatened; whether a backyard flock is such a farm operation wasn't established. This page names the state laws, not your local laws, and doesn't cover city zoning law or HOA, rooster or setback rules.

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 New York'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

Conditions apply to this finding

Jurisdiction: New York

Applies to: The domestic animal health permit under New York Agriculture and Markets Law article 5 (ss. 90-b, 90-c and 90-d) for dealers, auctioneers, rescues and poultry transporters.

Outside this finding's scope

  • The permit is written for dealers, auctioneers, rescues and poultry transporters. A dealer does not include people who buy and sell animals as part of a bona fide breeding, feeding or farming operation. No general registration duty for poultry keepers was found in the article 5 sections read (ss. 72, 76, 87-a, 90-b, 90-c and 90-d); the article’s other sections, including s. 95-a on animal ear tags or other identification and s. 96 on certificates of registry of domestic animals, were seen only as headings in its section list. New York’s regulations and the Department of Agriculture and Markets site were not read, so this is not proof that none exists.
  • These sections were read in Internet Archive copies of the New York State Senate’s official law pages, dated between April and October 2025 (the article’s section list, December 2025); later amendments are not shown.

What the checked sources say

  • The law makes it unlawful to buy, deal in, sell or rescue poultry or listed livestock, to run an auction where they are sold, or to transport poultry, unless the person, as a dealer, auctioneer, poultry transporter or rescue, holds a domestic animal health permit from the commissioner.
  • A dealer is someone who buys and sells these animals, poultry included, as a business enterprise. For this article, poultry means domesticated fowl including chickens, turkeys, waterfowl, guinea fowl and game birds commonly used for meat and eggs, but not pigeons, and a poultry transporter is anyone who transports or otherwise moves poultry to a live market.
  • A permit is issued for two years, and a renewal application is due on or before the thirtieth day before it expires.

Exemptions and their limits

  • The dealer definition does not include people who buy and sell such animals as part of a bona fide breeding, feeding or farming operation, who receive them only for slaughter on their own premises, or who buy or sell horses for a bona fide riding or racing operation or their own personal use.

Authority: New York State Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets

Fee: The application comes with an animal health permit fee of fifty dollars.

The official wording

  • 1. It shall be unlawful for any person to purchase, deal in, sell, or rescue cattle, swine, horses, cervids, camelids, sheep, goats or poultry; to operate or conduct an auction where cattle, swine, horses, cervids, camelids, sheep, goats or poultry are sold;

    AGM s. 90-c(1), opening, Internet Archive snapshot 2025-10-06 · Checked

  • or to transport poultry, unless such dealer, auctioneer, poultry transporter, or rescue holds a domestic animal health permit granted by the commissioner.

    AGM s. 90-c(1), closing · Checked

  • 6. The term "dealer" means any person who buys and sells cattle, horses, swine, cervids, camelids, poultry, goats, or sheep as a business enterprise. The term shall not include persons who buy and sell such animals as part of a bona fide breeding, feeding or farming operation,

    AGM s. 90-b(6), Internet Archive snapshot 2025-05-15 · Checked

  • or receive such animals exclusively for slaughter on their own premises, or purchase or sell horses either as part of a bona fide riding or racing operation or for their own personal use.

    AGM s. 90-b(6), closing · Checked

  • 12. The term "poultry" means a domesticated fowl including chickens, turkeys, waterfowl, guinea fowl and game birds commonly used for the production of meat and eggs. It does not include pigeons. 13. The term "poultry transporter" or "transporter of poultry" means any person who transports poultry or otherwise moves poultry to a live market.

    AGM s. 90-b(12)-(13) · Checked

  • The application shall be on a form prescribed by the commissioner and shall be accompanied by an animal health permit fee of fifty dollars.

    AGM s. 90-d, second sentence, Internet Archive snapshot 2025-04-21 · Checked

  • A permit shall be issued for a two year period and a renewal application shall be submitted to the commissioner on or before the thirtieth day prior to the expiration of the permit.

    AGM s. 90-d, last sentence · 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 2026-10-25

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: New York

Applies to: The Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets’ disease-control, seclusion-notice and quarantine powers (Agriculture and Markets Law ss. 72 and 76), which s. 87-a applies to domestic fowl.

Outside this finding's scope

  • This finding does not establish that any notice, quarantine or order applies now. The Department of Agriculture and Markets’ website could not be read for this check, so no current-status page is linked.
  • These sections were read in Internet Archive copies of the New York State Senate’s official law pages, dated between April and July 2025; later amendments are not shown.

What the checked sources say

  • For these sections, “animal” and “domestic animal” include domestic fowl and their fertile eggs.
  • When an infectious or communicable disease affecting domestic animals exists or breaks out in New York, the commissioner must take measures promptly to suppress it and stop it spreading.
  • The commissioner may publish a notice that a disease exists, may exist or recently existed in the state or in a named county or district, warning everyone to seclude all susceptible animals in the premises where they are, and ordering the precautions the commissioner specifies in the notice.
  • The commissioner, department veterinarians the commissioner authorises and certain other listed veterinarians may order any animal that has or has been exposed to a communicable disease into quarantine, and may quarantine any premises or farm where the disease is or recently was, so that no domestic animal is moved off or brought on; the commissioner sets the regulations needed to stop the disease spreading from quarantined premises.
  • 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.

  • Domestic fowl and fertile eggs of domestic fowl are included within the meaning of the words "animal" and "domestic animal" as used in sections seventy-two, seventy-three, seventy-four, seventy-five, seventy-six, seventy-seven, eighty-two, eighty-three, eighty-five, eighty-six and eighty-seven of this article.

    AGM s. 87-a, Internet Archive snapshot 2025-06-18 · Checked

  • Whenever any such disease shall exist or be brought into or break out in this state, the commissioner shall take measures promptly to suppress the same and to prevent such disease from spreading.

    AGM s. 72(1), last sentence, Internet Archive snapshot 2025-04-25 · Checked

  • 2. He may issue and publish a notice stating that a specified infectious or communicable disease exists, may exist or has recently existed in the state, or in any designated county or other geographical district thereof, and warning all persons to seclude, in the premises where they maybe at the time, all animals within this state,

    AGM s. 72(2), first sentence, opening · Checked

  • or within such county or district, or an adjoining county or district, that are of a kind susceptible to contract such disease; and ordering all persons to take such precautions against the spreading of the disease as the nature thereof may, in his judgment, render necessary or expedient and which he may specify in such notice.

    AGM s. 72(2), first sentence, closing · Checked

  • 1. The commissioner, any department employed veterinarian authorized by the commissioner, any veterinarian in the employ of the United States department of agriculture who is working in this state in connection with disease control programs cooperatively conducted by the United States department of agriculture and the department,

    AGM s. 76(1), opening, Internet Archive snapshot 2025-07-16 · Checked

  • may order any animal to be put in quarantine if such animal (a) is affected with communicable disease, (b) has been exposed to a communicable disease, (c) is believed to be suffering from or exposed to a communicable disease,

    AGM s. 76(1), first sentence, Internet Archive snapshot 2025-07-16 · Checked

  • and may order any premises or farm where such disease or condition exists or shall have recently existed to be put in quarantine so that no domestic animal shall be removed from or brought to the premises quarantined during the time of quarantine.

    AGM s. 76(1), first sentence, closing · Checked

  • The commissioner shall prescribe such regulations affecting animals, persons or property as he may deem necessary or expedient to prevent the dissemination of the disease or condition from the premises so quarantined.

    AGM s. 76(1), second sentence · Checked

Small-flock welfare minimums

Rule identified for the scope below

Jurisdiction: New York

Applies to: New York Agriculture and Markets Law article 26 cruelty provisions (ss. 350, 353 and 356), where animal includes every living creature except a human being.

Outside this finding's scope

  • Section 353 does not prohibit properly conducted scientific tests, experiments or investigations in laboratories or institutions approved by the state commissioner of health. The sections read set no numerical space standard.
  • These sections were read in Internet Archive copies of the New York State Senate’s official law pages, dated between October 2025 and January 2026; later amendments are not shown.

What the checked sources say

  • For this article, farm animal includes poultry raised for commercial or subsistence purposes.
  • Depriving any animal of necessary sustenance, food or drink, or neglecting or refusing to furnish it, is a class A misdemeanor, as is unjustifiably injuring, maiming, mutilating or killing an animal.
  • Anyone who has impounded or confined an animal and refuses or neglects to give it, during its confinement, a sufficient supply of good and wholesome air, food, shelter and water commits a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in prison, a fine of up to one thousand dollars, or both.

The official wording

  • 1. "Animal," as used in this article, includes every living creature except a human being;

    AGM s. 350(1), Internet Archive snapshot 2025-10-11 · Checked

  • 4. "Farm animal", as used in this article, means any ungulate, poultry, species of cattle, sheep, swine, goats, llamas, horses or fur-bearing animals, as defined in section 11-1907 of the environmental conservation law, which are raised for commercial or subsistence purposes.

    AGM s. 350(4) · Checked

  • or deprives any animal of necessary sustenance, food or drink, or neglects or refuses to furnish it such sustenance or drink,

    AGM s. 353, first sentence, sustenance clause, Internet Archive snapshot 2025-11-17 · Checked

  • A person who overdrives, overloads, tortures or cruelly beats or unjustifiably injures, maims, mutilates or kills any animal, whether wild or tame, and whether belonging to himself or to another,

    AGM s. 353, first sentence, opening · Checked

  • is guilty of a class A misdemeanor

    AGM s. 353, first sentence, penalty clause · Checked

  • Nothing herein contained shall be construed to prohibit or interfere with any properly conducted scientific tests, experiments or investigations, involving the use of living animals, performed or conducted in laboratories or institutions, which are approved for these purposes by the state commissioner of health.

    AGM s. 353, second sentence · Checked

  • A person who, having impounded or confined any animal, refuses or neglects to supply to such animal during its confinement a sufficient supply of good and wholesome air, food, shelter and water, is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment for not more than one year, or by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, or by both.

    AGM s. 356, first sentence, Internet Archive snapshot 2026-01-16 · Checked

National or state rules on keeping poultry

Conditions apply to this finding

Jurisdiction: New York

Applies to: New York towns’ and villages’ zoning powers (Town Law s. 261, Village Law s. 7-700), local governments’ power to adopt local laws (Municipal Home Rule Law s. 10), and the limit on restricting farm operations in agricultural districts (Agriculture and Markets Law s. 305-a).

Outside this finding's scope

  • No statewide permission or prohibition on keeping chickens is established by this finding. Your town or village board is empowered to regulate land use, and your county, city, town or village has power to adopt local laws, so check with them. Local governments must not unreasonably restrict or regulate farm operations within agricultural districts, contrary to the purposes of the Agriculture and Markets Law's agricultural districts article, unless it can be shown that public health or safety is threatened; whether a backyard flock is such a farm operation wasn't established. This page names the state laws, not your local laws, and doesn't cover city zoning law or HOA, rooster or setback rules.
  • Whether a backyard flock is a farm operation within an agricultural district was not established. City zoning sections of the General City Law were not read.
  • These sections were read in Internet Archive copies of the New York State Senate’s official law pages, dated between June and November 2025; later amendments are not shown.

What the checked sources say

  • A town board may, by local law or ordinance, regulate and restrict the location and use of buildings, structures and land for trade, industry, residence or other purposes, but only in the part of the town outside any incorporated village or city. A village board of trustees may do the same by local law.
  • Every county, city, town or village may adopt local laws, not inconsistent with the state constitution or any general law, on the government, protection, order, conduct, safety, health and well-being of people or property within it; a town’s power covers only its area outside its villages.
  • Local governments must not unreasonably restrict or regulate farm operations within agricultural districts, contrary to the purposes of the agricultural districts article of that law, unless it can be shown that public health or safety is threatened.

The official wording

Bird flu right now? PoultryPal's bird-flu tracker for New York has the latest we've checked.

Selling eggs in New York? →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 New York?
Registration: conditions apply. The finding covers: The domestic animal health permit under New York Agriculture and Markets Law article 5 (ss. 90-b, 90-c and 90-d) for dealers, auctioneers, rescues and poultry transporters. Outside this finding's scope: The permit is written for dealers, auctioneers, rescues and poultry transporters. A dealer does not include people who buy and sell animals as part of a bona fide breeding, feeding or farming operation. No general registration duty for poultry keepers was found in the article 5 sections read (ss. 72, 76, 87-a, 90-b, 90-c and 90-d); the article’s other sections, including s. 95-a on animal ear tags or other identification and s. 96 on certificates of registry of domestic animals, were seen only as headings in its section list. New York’s regulations and the Department of Agriculture and Markets site were not read, so this is not proof that none exists. These sections were read in Internet Archive copies of the New York State Senate’s official law pages, dated between April and October 2025 (the article’s section list, December 2025); later amendments are not shown. Exemptions and their limits: The dealer definition does not include people who buy and sell such animals as part of a bona fide breeding, feeding or farming operation, who receive them only for slaughter on their own premises, or who buy or sell horses for a bona fide riding or racing operation or their own personal use. Authority: New York State Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets.
Can I keep chickens in my backyard in New York?
The state law we read gives a named local body its own powers over where hens can live. A town board may, by local law or ordinance, regulate and restrict the location and use of buildings, structures and land for trade, industry, residence or other purposes, but only in the part of the town outside any incorporated village or city. A village board of trustees may do the same by local law. Every county, city, town or village may adopt local laws, not inconsistent with the state constitution or any general law, on the government, protection, order, conduct, safety, health and well-being of people or property within it; a town’s power covers only its area outside its villages. No statewide permission or prohibition on keeping chickens is established by this finding. Your town or village board is empowered to regulate land use, and your county, city, town or village has power to adopt local laws, so check with them. Local governments must not unreasonably restrict or regulate farm operations within agricultural districts, contrary to the purposes of the Agriculture and Markets Law's agricultural districts article, unless it can be shown that public health or safety is threatened; whether a backyard flock is such a farm operation wasn't established. This page names the state laws, not your local laws, and doesn't cover city zoning law or 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 New York?
Housing orders come and go, so we never show one as current. We haven't confirmed an official current-status page for it. PoultryPal's bird-flu tracker page for New York has the latest we've checked.

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