Backyard chicken ordinance passes!

Manchester’s City Council has made it legal to keep female chickens and quails in backyards. Photo credit: Mack Male/WikimediaCommons.

by Sara Swanson

Four months after Manchester’s City Council agreed to consider an an ordinance to legalize backyard chickens, backyard chickens are legal! At their regular meeting last Monday, June 2, the council unanimously passed an ordinance allowing for residents to keep female chickens and quails in their backyards. It will go into effect July 1.

Residents who want to keep chickens must obtain a permit every two years and there are restrictions. The number of birds that can be kept ranges from five to 15, depending on yard size; they must be kept in the backyard in a fenced area; and they must be kept in a secure, lockable, roofed enclosure at night. Other notable restrictions include no slaughtering in the city limits and no roadside egg stands. Read the ordinance HERE.

For as little as $1 a month, you can keep Manchester-focused news coverage alive.

by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and a founder of the Manchester Mirror.