Framingham, MA Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

The City of Framingham has no separate ordinance setting numeric limits on backyard chickens, coops, or livestock head counts. Instead, animal-keeping is folded into Chapter 255, the Right to Farm chapter adopted January 5, 2021. Section 255-2 defines "farming or agriculture" broadly, and one of its enumerated activities is the "keeping and raising of poultry, swine, cattle, bovine, ratites (such as emus, ostriches and rheas) and camelids (such as llamas and camels), and other domesticated animals for food and other agricultural purposes, including bees and fur-bearing animals." Because § 255-1B states that "this chapter shall apply to all jurisdictional areas within the City," that definition, and the protections that flow from it, reach a resident's backyard coop or hobby flock the same as a commercial farm, so long as the activity fits the "farming" definition rather than being merely decorative or unrelated to food or agricultural production.

The chapter does not, however, set its own permit process, setback, or maximum number of birds or animals for a residential lot; any such limits would come from the City's separate Zoning Ordinance, Chapter 435, rather than Chapter 255. What Chapter 255 does provide is legal cover: activities that fit the farming definition, including keeping poultry and livestock, gain the nuisance protections and disclosure and dispute procedures set out later in the same chapter, and the "farming" definition also expressly covers dairying, forestry, and the operation of a farm stand or farmer's market tied to that livestock or poultry operation.