need a quick answer please :D

[kiwirach]

i have to deliver a micro teaching session next weekend and am researching some questions.....

i was under the impression there was a restriction on the number of chickens you could keep in a backyard?. now i know space will play a part, but thought there were council restrictions. i've searched my local council website and cant seem to find anything, and i've searched on here for some general ideas, but just cant find what i'm looking for.

so, is there a number restriction on home kept chickens....regardless of size of ground?. also do you need permission to keep them?.

sorry to ask dumb questions....i'm not yet in the realms of chook keeping, and am wanting to ask a question about this in my session.
many thanks.

[flighty1]

I dont know about council rules but we have a clause in our house deeds which fotbids the keeping of poultry

[kirsty b]

Any flock under 50 birds is not required to be registered with DEFRA.

Like flighty1 says, some houses have clauses in the deeds not allowing chooks.
3 really is a minimum for chooks, as they are flock birds, so if one dies, the other isn't lonely.

Depends on size of garden and local authority rules as each one will be different I guess.

I keep mine on my allotment, and I currently only have 4 birds and a 3m x 9m run for them as well as a 7x7 shed for them to sleep in. The most birds I have had is 20, and I consider that number the max I would have for the space available.

[kiwirach]

thanks for your replies. i will reword my question a bit i think!.

[Suechooks]

Try researching the 1950 Allotment Act. That tells you that you can keep poultry on any land occupied by you and apparently over-rides any council by-laws and property deeds! There's also a sticky on Poultry Chat forum where someone has challenged a bye-law and used the act.

[kiwirach]

thx suechooks.....i'll go have a look, altho the question doesnt need to be that indepth.