Chesapeake, VA Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Swine keeping in Chesapeake runs through Sec. 10-18, administered by the City Manager or a designee. Anyone lawfully keeping swine before the zoning ordinance's swine provisions took effect can keep operating, but only if the operation is not expanded or intensified into a materially different one and stays compliant with all other local, state, and federal law. Facilities must also meet State Department of Health, State Department of Environmental Quality, and EPA standards for sanitation, odor, drainage, waste disposal, and maximum livestock density. Housing has to be soundly built, well-drained per DEQ rules, and kept free of flies, vermin, and mosquito breeding; bedding must stay dry except when sprinkling is needed to prevent overheating.

Waste removal has three tracks: pit-and-spread (pits emptied every six months or when full, waste spread within 48 hours), pit-to-lagoon, or daily cleanout with waste plowed into the earth or hauled off within seven days, with a 90-day cap on onsite storage if weather blocks spreading. Pastured swine within a half mile of a residential structure need waste plowed under every seven days. Complaints about noncompliance go to the seven-member Agricultural Advisory Commission, which must investigate within 21 days, issue written findings and recommendations within 30 days, and give the operator a reasonable window to fix adverse conditions before recommending legal action to the City Manager.

Existing facilities that predate the current setbacks may stay in place as long as they are used continuously; a facility idle more than two years loses that grandfathered status. Separately, Sec. 10-13 caps chick and duckling sales: dealers cannot sell birds younger than eight weeks old in lots smaller than six to one buyer, a Class 3 misdemeanor if violated.