Glendale, AZ Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Sec. 25-27, adopted by Ord. No. O24-31 on September 10, 2024, governs residential fowl keeping citywide. Male fowl, including roosters, are prohibited from within Glendale city limits outright, so the ordinance is a hens-only rule regardless of lot size or zoning. Residents of a single-family detached residential property may keep up to six fowl in the rear yard. Those birds must be kept inside an enclosure located in the rear or side yard, at least twenty feet from a neighboring property, and that enclosure cannot exceed two hundred square feet in area or eight feet in height.

Any coop or run must also satisfy the spacing and setback standards of the Glendale Unified Development Code and the International Building Code, including a ten-foot separation from the property's own primary and accessory structures, layering the fowl-specific rule on top of the city's general accessory-structure setbacks. Sanitation duties are spelled out in detail: manure must be picked up and disposed of or composted at least twice a week, composted manure must be managed to prevent insect migration, and feed has to be stored in insect-proof and rodent-proof containers.

Fowl must be contained at all times and are barred from running at large anywhere in the city. The section defines "fowl" narrowly as a cock or hen of the domestic chicken, so it does not extend permission to keep other livestock such as goats, pigs or larger farm animals in residential zones; those uses are addressed separately under the Unified Development Code's non-commercial livestock standards, not Sec. 25-27.