Backyard chickens and livestock are governed by each Somerset County municipality's zoning ordinance, which sets lot-size and coop-setback rules. New Jersey's Right to Farm Act protects commercial farms on qualifying land from being zoned out, even where residential rules would otherwise restrict animals.
Whether a household may keep hens is a municipal zoning question in Somerset County, not a state or county one. Rural and large-lot areas of Hillsborough, Montgomery, Bernards, and Franklin Township generally allow chickens and livestock subject to minimum lot size and coop-setback distances, while denser boroughs like Somerville limit or bar them. Above the local rules sits the New Jersey Right to Farm Act, which shields a commercial farm on qualifying, assessed farmland from local ordinances that would prohibit ordinary agricultural operations. Roosters and odor can still be curbed as a nuisance under municipal health codes.
Keeping poultry or livestock against the municipal zoning ordinance draws a zoning-enforcement notice and fines. Commercial farms qualifying under the Right to Farm Act are protected from ordinances that would ban their operations.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
Somerset County, NJ
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See how Somerset County's chickens & livestock rules stack up against other locations.
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