Rock Hill, SC Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

7, current as of the June 22, 2026 update to the December 2005 ordinance. A property keeping hens must build a coop with at least two square feet of floor area per hen and one nest box for every three hens, capped at 48 square feet and 8 feet tall, plus a separate predator-proof run built of durable material with at least four square feet per hen. Both the coop and the run must sit at least 5 feet off every property line and at least 30 feet from any residence, and must be screened from public view of neighboring properties and roads under the Chapter 5 fencing standards and the Chapter 8 landscape screening standards.

The hen count is capped at 10 per property. Roosters are treated far more strictly: a property may keep a rooster only if no other residence, aside from any on that same property, sits within two miles at the time the rooster arrives, and even a qualifying property is capped at two roosters at once, a threshold that rules out roosters on almost any ordinary residential lot inside the city. Anyone wanting a larger flock or commercial-scale operation is pushed out of this accessory-use track entirely: the Ordinance classifies larger farming operations as a special heavy industrial use, which carries its own separate zoning and permitting requirements rather than the simple accessory standard that governs a backyard coop.