Keeping hens · National rules

Can you keep backyard chickens in Zambia?

In Zambia, national law gives a named local body its own powers over where hens can live. Here's who decides, how to check, and what national law itself settles.

Read from 6 official sources34 passages quotedChecked October 28, 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 identified
Set locally

Who decides where hens can live

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

  • Local authority functions include controlling the keeping and movement of livestock, and local authorities may make by-laws, including by-laws providing for licences and permits (Local Government Act, 2019 ss.16(2), 58 and First Schedule para 3(e)).
  • Ask your local council whether its by-laws limit poultry keeping or require a permit.

This does not establish whether chickens may be kept at a particular property; local authorities control the keeping of livestock, and no council by-law was read.

Registration: not established in the national sources we read.

The law's own words are quoted under national 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 national law in Zambia, 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

Not established from the sources checked

Jurisdiction: Zambia

Applies to: People who breed, rear or manage animals, which include birds, under the Animal Identification and Traceability Act, 2024; owners of animals under the Animal Health Act, 2010.

Outside this finding's scope

  • The Animal Identification and Traceability Act, 2024 comes into operation on a date the Minister appoints by statutory instrument; no commencement order was found in the sources read.
  • Regulations under either Act were not read.
  • The Animal Identification Act, 2010, which the 2024 Act repeals and replaces, was not read.

What the checked sources say

  • Once in operation, the Animal Identification and Traceability Act, 2024 requires an operator, which includes anyone who breeds, rears or manages animals, to notify the Traceability Officer of their premises, and bars keeping, selling or buying animals that are not identified under that Act (ss.2, 19(2), 20(1)).
  • Under the Animal Health Act, 2010, the Director must use an animal and animal product identification system (s.21), and no one may move an animal, animal product or anything prescribed without a permit (s.16(1)).
  • A 2025 bill to amend the Animal Health Act aims to revise how animals and animal products are identified and traced.
  • The Department of Veterinary Services says its Animal Registration Unit registers animals and farms. Ask the Department whether your flock must be registered.

Authority: Department of Veterinary Services, Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock

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 2026-10-28

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: Zambia

Applies to: Animals, which include all vertebrates other than humans, under the Animal Health Act, 2010.

Outside this finding's scope

  • No avian influenza order and no rule requiring backyard flocks to be housed was found in the sources read (Animal Health Act, 2010 ss.1-23 and 80; the Department of Veterinary Services page). This page does not say whether any order applies now.
  • The Act text read is the 2010 Act as passed; its amendment history was not fully checked.

What the checked sources say

  • The Minister or the Director may make orders to regulate the quarantine, isolation, disinfection or treatment of animals in any part of Zambia named in the order (Animal Health Act s.12(c)).
  • The Director declares an infected area where a notifiable or emerging disease is suspected or confirmed, and may declare quarantine areas (ss.13(2), 23(1)).
  • An owner of an animal suspected of being infected must immediately tell the nearest officer, police officer, agriculture officer, veterinary surgeon, district executive officer, chief or village headman (s.17(1)).
  • For current measures, check with the Department of Veterinary Services, Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, which collects and publishes information on the national status of animal diseases.
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: Zambia

Applies to: Any person, and owners (including anyone with charge, custody or control), of an animal; animal includes fowl and any other domestic animal, fowl or bird (Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act s.2).

Outside this finding's scope

  • The text read is the National Assembly's copy of Cap. 245, which notes amendments up to Act No. 13 of 1994; later amendments were not checked.

What the checked sources say

  • Do not cruelly beat, kick, ill-treat, over-ride, over-load or torture an animal, or, by wantonly or unreasonably doing or omitting to do any act, cause it unnecessary suffering; an owner must not permit such suffering (s.3(1)(a)).
  • An owner is treated as permitting cruelty if they fail to take reasonable care and supervision to protect their animal from it (s.3(2)).
  • Breaking these rules is an offence (s.3(1)).
  • Under the Animal Health Act, 2010, an owner of land on which livestock are kept must provide handling, housing and disease control facilities for their humane maintenance (s.14(1)).

The official wording

National rules on keeping poultry

Conditions apply to this finding

Jurisdiction: Zambia

Applies to: Owners of land on which livestock are kept; livestock means any breed or population of animal kept by a human being for a useful or commercial purpose, including domestic, semi-domestic and captive wild animals (Animal Health Act s.2).

Outside this finding's scope

  • This does not establish whether chickens may be kept at a particular property; local authorities control the keeping of livestock, and no council by-law was read.
  • The national texts' silence on poultry numbers is not permission to keep chickens.

What the checked sources say

  • An owner of land on which livestock are kept must provide handling, housing and disease control facilities for their humane maintenance (Animal Health Act s.14(1)).
  • Local authority functions include controlling the keeping and movement of livestock, and local authorities may make by-laws, including by-laws providing for licences and permits (Local Government Act, 2019 ss.16(2), 58 and First Schedule para 3(e)).
  • Ask your local council whether its by-laws limit poultry keeping or require a permit.

The official wording

Selling eggs in Zambia? →Licence, small-flock line, markets and cartons, on their own page.Selling: Licence: not stated

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Common questions

Do I have to register backyard chickens in Zambia?
Registration: not established. The finding covers: People who breed, rear or manage animals, which include birds, under the Animal Identification and Traceability Act, 2024; owners of animals under the Animal Health Act, 2010. Outside this finding's scope: The Animal Identification and Traceability Act, 2024 comes into operation on a date the Minister appoints by statutory instrument; no commencement order was found in the sources read. Regulations under either Act were not read. The Animal Identification Act, 2010, which the 2024 Act repeals and replaces, was not read. Authority: Department of Veterinary Services, Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock.
Can I keep chickens in my backyard in Zambia?
The national law we read gives a named local body its own powers over where hens can live. Local authority functions include controlling the keeping and movement of livestock, and local authorities may make by-laws, including by-laws providing for licences and permits (Local Government Act, 2019 ss.16(2), 58 and First Schedule para 3(e)). Ask your local council whether its by-laws limit poultry keeping or require a permit. This does not establish whether chickens may be kept at a particular property; local authorities control the keeping of livestock, and no council by-law was read. 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 Zambia?
Housing orders come and go, so we never show one as current. We haven't confirmed an official current-status page for it.

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