Backyard Poultry Navigation
More than 125 million domestic poultry call Aotearoa New Zealand home every year. While most of these birds are chickens raised for commercial meat production, this large and diverse population also includes many other species such as bantams, ducks, turkeys, geese, game birds (quails, pheasants, squab, and guinea fowl), and large birds (ostriches and emus).
Broadly speaking, the domestic poultry population in New Zealand can be divided into two main groups:
The dividing line between these two groups is based on the total number of female birds that people keep on their property. Any individuals with 100 or more female birds are considered commercial poultry farmers and subject to increased regulatory oversight.
Virtually all commercial poultry production in New Zealand is focused on raising chickens for either meat or for eggs. As of January 2024, there are approximately 165 broiler farms that produce about 120 million meat chickens each year and approximately 170 layer farms across New Zealand that keep about 4 million birds that produce over 1 billion eggs every year.
... the average adult in New Zealand consumes about 20 chickens and 237 eggs every year.
There is a growing demand for turkey which is moving beyond the traditional seasonal Christmas demand and there are approximately 11 commercial farms mostly located in the South Island that produce 250,000 turkeys every year. Duck meat and eggs are also gaining in popularity although there is currently only 1 major commercial duck company in New Zealand with several farms that collectively produce over 500,000 meat ducks every year.
Little is known about the size of the backyard poultry population, but estimates suggest that there could be as many as 50,000 households across New Zealand that keep a total of over 500,000 birds.
Click on the links below for more detailed information about the different populations.
All commercial poultry farms are under the direct oversight of the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and must (1) adhere to appropriate codes of welfare in the Animal Welfare Act and (2) maintain a Risk Management Programme (RMP) to identify and eliminate any potential hazards that could affect human health, animal health, and/or the wholesomeness of the resulting products. These farms are regularly audited by MPI to ensure that they are meeting the basic standards.
There are some backyard poultry keepers with less than 100 birds who sell eggs as a source of supplemental income. While they are still expected to meet basic animal welfare standards, most are exempt from having an RMP and are not subject to audits as long as they only sell their eggs directly to the people who will be consuming them. Backyard poultry keepers cannot legally sell eggs to anyone who intends to sell them to someone else or who will use them to prepare food that is sold to someone else (i.e. shops or cafes). This is mainly to protect consumers since these farms have not been audited to make sure they meet food safety standards.
The commercial poultry industry has two organisations that represent the interests of their farmers: the Poultry Industry Association of New Zealand (PIANZ) for the commercial broiler, turkey, and duck industries and the Egg Producers Federation of New Zealand (EPF) for the commercial layer industry. Although registration is voluntary, almost every commercial poultry farm in New Zealand belongs to one of these organisations.
There is currently no national organisation representing the interests of backyard poultry keepers.
New Zealand is a unique country in that it’s currently free of most important infectious poultry diseases including highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), Newcastle Disease, infectious coryza, avian chlamydiosis, and infectious bursal disease (IBD).
The commercial industry has a good surveillance system in place that involves:
Surveillance in backyard poultry mostly depends on keepers identifying sick birds and then either directly notifying the MPI disease reporting hotline or taking their birds to a veterinarian for examination.
Over the past 10 years, there have only been three significant disease incidents:
