Mebane, NC Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Mebane City Code Sec. 4-37, added by Ordinance No. OA-22-01 in 2022, allows backyard hens regardless of zoning on any lot or lots in the same ownership containing at least one single-family dwelling, but excludes apartment complexes, condominiums, townhouses, duplexes and patio homes. The cap is ten hens per lot up to one acre, with ten additional hens allowed for each acre or portion of an acre beyond the first, so a two-acre property may keep 20 hens and a three-acre property 30, with no overall maximum once the per-acre math is applied.

Roosters are banned outright. Any hen that leaves its keeper's property and is found wandering on public or other private property is deemed "at large" and a public nuisance, and the keeper may not permit that. Separately, Sec. 4-33 governs larger livestock, horses, mules, sheep, pigs, ponies and similar agricultural animals, but excludes fowl, dogs, cats and rabbits, requiring a minimum one-acre lot with no more than two beasts per acre and at least 200 feet of separation from a neighboring residence. Sec. 4-34 requires stables, barns and other livestock enclosures to be kept clean and sanitary, and Sec.

4-35 requires the whole premises to stay sanitary enough not to become a nuisance to neighbors. Livestock kept unlawfully when the article was adopted had 120 days under Sec. 4-36 to come into compliance or be removed.