Chapel Hill, NC Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Section 4-10(c) of the Chapel Hill Code restricts farm animals to larger lots: no one may keep a cow, swine, goat, horse, sheep or cattle within town limits unless the parcel is at least four acres and the animal stays more than one hundred feet from any residence other than the custodian's own home. Section 4-10(d) governs chickens with five separate rules. Chickens cannot run at large anywhere in town. A household may keep no more than ten chickens. Any chicken house or enclosure must sit at least thirty feet from the nearest neighboring residence, and it cannot be located between the street and the front wall of a house facing that street.

Every chicken house and lot must stay clean and sanitary at all times, and raising chickens for commercial sale is barred entirely regardless of the ten-bird cap. A related provision, Section 4-10(e), separately treats a noisy rooster, duck, goose or other fowl as a public nuisance if its crowing, quacking or honking becomes habitual, with the town manager able to order abatement. Section 4-10 itself carries no dedicated fine, so a violation of the acreage, setback, headcount or sanitation rules falls under the Section 1-7 general penalty: a fine of not more than fifty dollars or imprisonment of not more than thirty days, with each day a violation continues treated as its own offense.

The Chapel Hill animal control division, staffed by the town or under contract with the Orange County Animal Society per Section 4-2, investigates complaints and can issue the resulting citation.