Hamilton County, TN Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Article IV, Section 601 governs the R-2A Rural Residential District. Its Principal Uses Permitted list item (1) allows 'Farming, including all types of agriculture and horticulture except as prohibited in subsection D below,' and item (2) allows 'Stables for personal use only.' But Section 601(D), Prohibited Uses, specifically bars '(2) Commercial kennels, and rabbit, fox, goat or other animal raising or feeding farms' and '(3) Poultry farms' in that district. So R-2A permits small-scale, non-commercial agriculture but not a commercial poultry or animal-raising operation. By contrast, Article IV, Section 101's Principal Uses Permitted for the A-1 Agricultural District lists 'the raising and maintaining of poultry and livestock' outright as a permitted principal use with no such carve-out, making A-1 the district for full-scale poultry and livestock keeping.

The R-1 Single-Family Residential District's Principal Uses Permitted at Section 201(A) lists only single-family dwellings, schools, parks, churches, golf courses, fire halls, kindergartens, day care homes, and Short Term Vacation Rentals; farming, poultry, and livestock do not appear on that list at all, so they are not a permitted use in R-1 under the county's permissive zoning scheme. R-2 Urban Residential, at Section 501(D), likewise lists 'Poultry farms' among its Prohibited Uses.