Can I keep chickens, horses or bees on my property in BC?

Question

Accepted Answer

The zoning bylaw decides which animals a lot may keep and how many; in the ALR farming is a permitted use, and anywhere in BC a chicken, horse, goat or hive needs a Premises ID within 30 days. In the farmland reserve farming is a permitted use: a bylaw can add limits to it, and some farm uses it may not prohibit at all. The Province's own rules follow the animals wherever they're kept: a Premises ID for the land, a beekeeper's registration, and setbacks for manure from wells and streams. A report names the lot's zone, links our summary of its rules where we have one, and says whether the lot is in the ALR. Look up the address or PID on PlaceDossier to see the record for that lot. The zone decides: A zoning bylaw lists the uses each zone permits, and keeping animals is a use: a farm or rural zone usually permits it, a house zone often limits it to a few hens or none. Councils may also regulate animals by bylaw (Community Charter s. 8 (3) (k); Local Government Act s. 318 in a regional district). Two zones we summarise show how far rules go: Abbotsford's Suburban Residential Hobby Farm zone allows poultry and rabbits up to 50 animal units a hectare and goats and sheep up to 10 a hectare, no roosters, with hobby farm buildings 30 m from wells (Zoning Bylaw No. 2400, ss. 120, 335), and Coquitlam's Rural Residential zone allows at most one horse, cow, sheep or goat per 1,000 m² of lot and no commercial pigs, poultry or fur animals (Zoning Bylaw No. 3000, s. 1001). Each bylaw differs: read the lot's own zone. Farmland (ALR): Farming animals is a farm use of land in the agricultural land reserve (Agricultural Land Commission Act s. 1). A local bylaw must stay consistent with the Act but may add restrictions on farm use (s. 46 (2), (6)). The ALR Use Regulation lists farm uses a local government may not prohibit, except by a farming area bylaw, among them the structures a farm use needs, such as a barn, and riding, training and boarding up to 40 horses (ss. 4, 5, 9). Where the Province has declared it, a zoning bylaw may not prohibit or restrict a farm business in a farming area without the agriculture minister's approval (Local Government Act ss. 481, 552, 553). The Right to Farm Act: A farmer running a farm business isn't liable in nuisance for odour, noise or dust from normal farm practices, and can't be stopped by a court order, on land in the ALR or where the local government allows farm use, as long as the practice keeps to the health, pest and environmental Acts and the land use rules (Farm Practices Protection (Right to Farm) Act s. 2). The Act protects farm businesses: a few hens kept for the house are most likely not one (our reading). Breeding pets and kennels are left out (s. 1). A neighbour's complaint goes to the BC Farm Industry Review Board (s. 3). A Premises ID, for even one animal: Anyone who becomes responsible for an animal kept on a parcel of land must enrol in the BC Premises ID Program within 30 days, and report a change or stopping within 30 days: the land's location, the species and how many it can hold (Premises Identification Regulation ss. 3, 5, 9). It applies with no minimum number to chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, quail, pigeons and other poultry, horses, donkeys, cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, alpacas and llamas, rabbits, and honey bees (Schedule 1). Bees: Keeping honey bees in BC needs registration as a beekeeper, with each apiary registered too, renewed every two years; the beekeeper's name, contact and producer number are posted at the apiary, and an owner may only let a registered beekeeper keep bees on the land (Bee Regulation ss. 2, 3, 5). Many towns also set how many hives a lot may hold and how far from its lines: Abbotsford's bylaw allows none under 540 m² and two to six by lot size (Zoning Bylaw No. 2400, s. 140.2.11). Manure, wells and streams: On land not zoned residential, keeping livestock or poultry for food, fibre, work or recreation is an agricultural operation under the Code of Practice for Agricultural Environmental Management, commercial or not (s. 2). Stored manure is kept at least 30 m from a drinking water source, 15 m from other watercourses and 4.5 m from the lot line, and animals in a pen or paddock don't get direct access to a drinking water source or watercourse (ss. 17, 62). See wells and streamside setbacks for what's near the lot. Open range and wildlife: Outside a pound district, Crown range cattle can lawfully stray onto unfenced land: fencing them out is the owner's job (see open range). Poultry, feed and beehives draw bears and other wildlife; an electric fence is the usual answer (our reading).

Can I keep chickens, horses or bees on my property in BC?

What the answer means