Rules swing hard by location. Unincorporated Williamson County allows poultry and livestock on agricultural land, Franklin permits hens with a health-officer permit near neighbors, and Brentwood requires three acres for any chickens. Roosters are widely barred.
Backyard poultry in Williamson County is a zoning question with very different answers a few miles apart. On unincorporated, agriculturally zoned land, keeping hens and livestock is generally allowed, subject to HOA and deed restrictions and to certain village overlay zones. Franklin permits chickens but requires a permit from the health officer to keep fowl within a thousand feet of a residence or business, and it prohibits roosters. Brentwood is the strict outlier: chickens, and also ducks, geese, cattle, horses, and bees, are only allowed on lots of at least three acres, which rules them out for most homeowners. Larger livestock everywhere needs agricultural zoning and room.
Keeping fowl or livestock where zoning or lot size does not allow it, or without a required Franklin health permit, brings a correction order to remove the animals, plus nuisance fines for sanitation or noise.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
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See how Williamson County's chickens & livestock rules stack up against other locations.
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