Arcadia, CA Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Section 4136 of the Arcadia Municipal Code caps chickens, rabbits, poultry and fowl, other than homing pigeons, at ten fowl or birds and a total of five small animals on any premises in the City, counting offspring until they can be raised independently of the full grown animals. Section 4131.5 defines a small animal as one weighing less than three hundred pounds, and Section 4131.3 lists rabbits, pigeons, chickens, chicks, capons, ducks, geese, turkeys, doves and squabs among the covered birds.

Section 4136.1 sets the distances. Rabbits, poultry and domestic fowl other than household pets must stay thirty-five feet from any residence or other building used for human habitation, other than the keeper's own, and from any school, hospital or similar institution. They must also stay sixty-five feet from any public street or sidewalk, reduced to forty feet on the side street side of a corner lot. Section 4136.2 protects existing coops: a new dwelling built within thirty-five feet of a location where fowl have been kept continuously or customarily for six months does not force their removal.

Section 4136.3 bars anyone from illuminating a coop, shed, building or other enclosure holding poultry or fowl between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. Section 4136.4 exempts a building entirely enclosed by solid walls, floor and roof, a structure used only for raising poultry or domestic animals under twelve weeks of age, and temporary lighting while the owner is actively protecting the birds from a person or animal endangering them. Section 4136.5 forbids letting chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, other fowl or rabbits go onto another person's premises. Section 4136.6.1 bars selling or giving away baby chickens, ducklings or other fowl under three weeks old, or rabbits under two months old, as pets, toys or novelties, and Section 4136.6.2 bars dyeing them.

Larger livestock fall under Section 4135.4. Horses and other permitted animals cannot be kept within one hundred feet of a main dwelling or guest house occupied by someone else, and no such animal can be kept within seventy-five feet of the front lot line. Barns and corrals cannot stand between the front or corner side property line and the main dwelling, and no barn can serve as living quarters. Section 4135.3 requires a substantial enclosure for any bull, and Section 4137.5 prohibits keeping any hog, swine, boar, pig or shoat anywhere in the City.