Amador County Beekeeping Regulations

In unincorporated Amador County apiaries must sit 150 ft from public roads and 200 to 600 ft from the nearest dwelling depending on colony count, with every hive marked and moves reported to the agricultural commissioner.

Note: Read in full in 2026 and all four published figures are confirmed. Two points worth knowing: the ladder counts COLONIES rather than hives and measures to the nearest inhabited dwelling, and the ordinance is unusually protective of the bees themselves, since the commissioner may relocate an apiary but is expressly barred from destroying it. Chapter 7.50 governs unincorporated territory. Note that we do not yet hold a direct link for this code: it is published on eCode360 as Amador County Code Chapter 7.50, Apiaries.

• Apiaries must be at least 150 feet from the traveled portion of all public roads, unless natural barriers prevent the bees from causing a nuisance or hazard to road users. 7.50.040(A)
• Distance from the nearest inhabited dwelling is set by colony count: 200 feet for three or fewer colonies, 400 feet for four to twenty, and 600 feet for twenty-one or more. A shorter distance requires the permission of the occupant. 7.50.040(B)
• Near school yards or places where people congregate, apiaries must be at least 600 feet away and behind natural or built barriers that force the bees to fly high over the area. 7.50.040(C)
• Every hive must be clearly marked with the name, address and telephone number of the person owning or legally responsible for it. 7.50.060
• The agricultural commissioner must be notified within five days of moving any hive into the county or between parcels within it. 7.50.080
• An adequate water supply must be available at all times, hives must be screened when moved during daylight so the bees stay contained, and placing a hive on land without the owner’s permission is prohibited. 7.50.050, .070, .090
• A violation draws a 48-hour notice to cease or remedy, after which the commissioner may enter and abate or relocate the apiary at the owner’s cost. Violation is a misdemeanor punishable by up to five hundred dollars and six months. 7.50.100, .110, .170

No apiary standards of its own. Apiaries are a permitted use in the AE Agricultural Estate zone, and the adopted county animal code excludes bees from its wild-animal definition.

Note: The city adopts the county ANIMAL code (Title 8), not the county apiary chapter. Chapter 7.50 and its 150/200/400/600 ft setbacks apply to unincorporated Amador County and do not extend into the city. Within the city, apiaries are permitted in the AE zone and bees are expressly excluded from the wild-animal definition, so no permit or setback standard applies. California still requires apiary registration with the county agricultural commissioner (BeeWhere).

• Apiaries and honey extraction plants are a permitted use in the AE Agricultural Estate zone. 17.52.020(17)
• The city adopts the Amador County animal code, whose wild-animal definition covers any species venomous to human beings except honey-producing bees. 6.04.010 / County 8.04.200(E)

Beekeeping is named inside the zoning code definition of an agricultural use rather than regulated on its own, so where you may keep bees depends on where that use class is allowed.

Hive limit: No hive count is set. No beekeeping-specific standard was found in the code.

Note: Ione does not have a beekeeping ordinance. What it has is a definition: beekeeping is one of the activities that make up an agricultural use, listed with grazing, ranching, dairy farming and poultry farming. That means your answer is not in a bee section but in the zoning tables, and the question to take to the city is which zones allow that agricultural use class and on what terms. We have not read those tables, so this card should not be taken as saying you may keep bees anywhere in Ione. The one thing the code does tell you plainly is that apiculture counts as a protected agricultural operation under the right-to-farm chapter, which is useful if you are farming somewhere the neighbours later object to.

• Beekeeping is listed among the typical uses inside an allowed-use definition, alongside grazing, ranching, dairy farming and poultry farming, and excluding slaughterhouses and feedlot operations. 17.310.020
• Apiculture is within the definition of an agricultural commodity for the agricultural lands and operations chapter, which also requires notice to purchasers of real property that agricultural operations nearby are protected. 18.12.020, 18.12.040

No beekeeping provisions. A 2026 read found no match for bees, beekeeping, apiary or hive anywhere in the code.

Hive limit: Not confirmed — see the code

Note: Searched by hand in 2026 for bees, beekeeping, apiary and hive, with no match. That is a result rather than a gap. Note that Amador County’s apiary chapter (Ch. 7.50) governs unincorporated territory and does not extend into the city. California still requires apiary registration with the county agricultural commissioner (BeeWhere) regardless of local rules.

No apiary standards. Bees are excluded from the wild-animal definition and classified as Insects under the zoning code’s Animal Keeping categories.

Hive limit: Not confirmed — see the code

Note: A 2026 read found no hive limit, setback or permit requirement. Bees are expressly outside the wild-animal definition and are classified as Insects for zoning purposes. Where insects may be kept is set by the zoning use tables, which were not read here, so check those for your parcel. Animal control is handled by Amador County, and the county apiary chapter (Ch. 7.50) governs unincorporated territory rather than the city. California still requires apiary registration with the county agricultural commissioner (BeeWhere).

• The wild-animal definition covers any species venomous to human beings, whether by bite, sting, touch or other means, except honey-producing bees. 7.04.010
• Under the Animal Keeping classification, Insects means small arthropod animals confined or cultivated for domestic purposes, including bees. 19.98.020

No beekeeping provisions found in this code by a 2026 search.

Note: A 2026 search of this jurisdiction's full Municode code found no match for any beekeeping term (bees, beekeeping, apiary, apiculture, hive and related words). That is a search of the published code, not a lawyer's reading: a rule could still exist if it avoids all of those words, sits in a separate code not published here, or was adopted after the search. Confirm at the source before relying on it.