Winter Haven, FL Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Section 21-69 of the Unified Land Development Code covers both livestock generally and chickens specifically. Subsection (a) makes it unlawful citywide for anyone owning or controlling livestock, birds or other fowl to let them run or be at large, a general restriction that applies regardless of zoning district. Subsection (e) then carves chickens out as a permitted accessory use in every zoning district in the City, with a detailed standard that applies everywhere except the AG agriculture district, where the ordinary limits do not apply.

Roosters are barred outright: only hens are allowed. Density is tied to lot size at a rate of one chicken per 1,000 square feet of parcel area, capped at five birds no matter how large the lot is. A coop is mandatory, chickens cannot be kept without one, and the coop itself is capped at 125 square feet in area and six feet in height. The coop also has to sit at whatever accessory structure setback applies to the property's zoning district, so a coop in an R-1 large-lot district and one in an R-4 multifamily district follow different placement rules even though the size and height caps are the same everywhere.

Because AG-zoned land is excluded from subsection (e)'s standards, agricultural parcels are not bound by the hens-only, one-per-1,000-square-foot, five-bird or coop-size limits that apply to chicken-keeping in the City's residential and other districts.