Frederick County, VA Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

The Zoning Ordinance treats backyard chickens as a use permitted by right only in the R4 and R5 districts, and only as an accessory use to a single-family detached residence: apartments, townhouses and other housing types don't qualify. The limit is six chickens, hens only, per residence; roosters and any other species of fowl are barred outright, a rule aimed at noise complaints in subdivision-density neighborhoods. Coops and pens can't sit in the front setback yard that applies to the primary house, and they must otherwise meet the accessory-structure setbacks that apply in the RP Zoning District under Article IV, Part 405, even though the property itself may be zoned R4 or R5.

Keepers also have ongoing sanitation duties: chicken waste has to go into an enclosed container and be composted or otherwise disposed of so it doesn't become a nuisance, and feed must be stored in an enclosed, vermin-proof container to avoid attracting rodents. A separate cross-reference in the ordinance, § 48-26 of the County Code, bars chickens and fowl from running at large, so free-ranging birds that leave the owner's lot are a violation independent of the coop rules. The Zoning Administrator in the Department of Planning and Development enforces the district and setback limits; complaints about loose birds go through the Sheriff's Office under the Animals and Fowl chapter.