Leon County, FL Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Sec. 816 regulates 'urban agriculture animals' on ordinary residential lots, treating a backyard flock as an accessory use to the home rather than a farm operation. A home garden, allowed by right on any lawfully established residential lot, may keep up to ten hens or ducks per single-family, two-family, or multifamily residence, and those birds must be raised for personal use only, with eggs kept for personal consumption rather than sale. Roosters are prohibited in a home garden setting entirely, and the county separately bans keeping any crowing chicken outside the exceptions written into the section.

Every hen, rooster, or duck permitted under the article has to be contained in a pen or coop, and that pen or coop must sit in the rear yard on any property zoned or used for residential purposes. Owners also can't let hens or ducks run at large on streets, alleys, other public places, or a neighbor's property, and the section folds in the county's general public-nuisance and humane-care standards, so an odor complaint, rodent problem, or excessive noise from a flock is enforceable under Sec.

4-36 and Sec. 4-37 of the Leon County Code of Laws on top of the urban-agriculture rules. Larger flocks are only available through the community-garden or urban-farm tracks of the same section, which allow up to 20 hens or ducks plus one rooster, or unlimited hens and ducks with up to two roosters, respectively, but both require formal permit review that an ordinary backyard flock does not need.