Woodbury, MN Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Section 5-16 defines livestock broadly to include cattle, goats, horses, sheep, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks and other poultry, and separates it from a domesticated pet, which is limited to animals like cats, dogs and small caged mammals kept for companionship. Section 5-17 then splits the keeping rules in two. General livestock, aside from chicken-hens, may only be kept on land zoned for agricultural use of at least five acres, and keeping more than one livestock animal per acre requires a conditional use permit under chapter 24.

99 acres or less and two hens per acre above that. Roosters do not qualify for the carve-out and are treated as ordinary livestock, so keeping one on a standard residential lot needs the same five-acre, agriculturally-zoned land that other livestock requires. Chickens must stay inside a coop and cannot run at large or enter the home, garage or an accessory building. Section 24-285 sets the physical standards for that coop: one per dwelling, set back a minimum of 50 feet from any adjacent dwelling and 20 feet from all property lines, located in the rear yard only and clear of easements, capped at 50 square feet in area and seven feet in height, with any non-rigid material like poultry netting framed rigid and kept taut and in good repair.