It’s Totally Legal to Own Backyard Chickens in These New Hampshire Towns

I was chatting with my friend who lives in New Hampshire right by the Vermont border about some "fowl play" she recently engaged in. You will understand the pun in just a second.

She owns a few chickens and roosters, and they always have hilarious names such as "Uncle Baby Billy" or "Gandalf".

She shared with me that she recently met up with someone in a Walmart parking lot because he was interested in taking one of her roosters off her hands. Now if this isn't the most New Hampshire moment of the week, I'm not sure what is!

She said that was not the first time she met up in a Walmart parking lot for such a transaction, and it certainly won't be the last.

Roosters are pretty good to have around (especially if you have chickens or hens) because they protect them from predators. However, not everyone is keen on being woken up by a cockle-doodle-doo each morning. Even though I am an early riser, it feels like a rude awakening to me.

I began to wonder what New Hampshire towns allow their residents to roosters and chickens and which towns do not.

According to a site called omlet.us, the following New Hampshire cities/towns do not allow roosters:

Concord, Dover, Laconia, Lebanon, Manchester, Rochester, and Nashua. 

Keene permits owning roosters on lots five acres or larger!

According ThePetZealot.com, these New Hampshire towns are totally fine with you owning backyard chickens if you follow these parameters:

Londonderry, NH - 6 Chickens per one half acre
Hudson, NH - Only hens are allowed
Keene, NH - Up to 6 chickens per lot less than 1 acre
Hampton, NH - Up to 8 hens may be kept
Windham, NH - Chickens are permitted in residential districts
Lebanon, NH - 2 Hens per acre in residential districts
Hooksett, NH - Chickens are allowed in the LDR, MDR, URD and HDR districts
Somersworth, NH - A $10 permit is required to keep chickens
Berlin, NH - Residents must obtain a chicken-keeping permit

They are also allowed in Derry, Dover, Manchester, Nashua, Rochester, Merrimack, and Concord.

If you are curious about the chicken/rooster owning laws in your town and they have not been covered in this article, visit chickenlaws.com.