Fresno County Beekeeping Regulations

Regulations cover Bill of Sale, Transportation, and identification. See ordinance for further regulations.

• Any person who transports bees and/or apiary equipment upon any public road in Fresno County shall have in the person's possession a valid bill of sale for the bees and/or apiary equipment or a written permission issued by the owner of the bees and/or apiary equipment authorizing the transportation of the bees and/or apiary equipment. 8.16.020

Bees may be kept only in conjunction with a permitted agricultural operation, only for seasonal pollination, and may not be raised in the city. Hives must be 200 to 600 ft from any road or occupied structure depending on how many there are. A backyard hive does not qualify.

Hive limit: No fixed cap, but the setback widens with the count: 200 ft for three hives or fewer, 400 ft for four to twenty, 600 ft for twenty-one or more.

Note: Read in full in 2026 and expanded. The card carried only § 6.1.306 from the animals title; the standards sit in the zoning code at § 9.40.040(B), which that section does not point to. Two sentences there change what Clovis permits: apiaries are limited to the SEASONAL POLLINATION of permitted agricultural uses, and bees may NOT BE RAISED on property within the city. So a lawful Clovis apiary is a pollination placement rather than a home for bees, and a backyard hive does not qualify however well set back. The distances are the widest in this dataset and they band by hive count, 200 ft up to three hives, 400 ft to twenty, 600 ft beyond that, measured to public roads and to any occupied structure that is not your own. Written permission from those affected is the only relief. Note the code cross-references "Section 6.1.106" where the bee section is numbered 6.1.306, which appears to be an error in the code itself.

• No person may keep or maintain any stand of bees within the city except in conjunction with an existing agricultural operation. 6.1.306
• Apiaries are limited to the seasonal pollination of permitted agricultural uses. Bees may not be raised on property within the city. An adequate supply of fresh water must be available to the bees on the property at all times. 9.40.040(B)(1)
• Hives must be at least 200 ft from any public road, street or highway, and from any residence or other occupied structure other than that of the property owner or occupant. Closer placement is possible only with the written permission of the people affected. 9.40.040(B)(2)
• The same rule applies with the minimum distance raised to 400 ft. 9.40.040(B)(3)
• The same rule applies with the minimum distance raised to 600 ft. 9.40.040(B)(4)

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.

A hive may not be kept within 100 ft of any dwelling other than the one the beekeeper occupies. The code sets no limit on how many hives you may keep.

Hive limit: No limit on the number of hives. The only rule is the distance.

Note: Read in full in 2026 and corrected. The card showed a hive limit of 100. Firebaugh sets no hive limit: § 6-7.3 is one sentence with one number, and that number is a 100 ft distance from any dwelling other than your own, which had been filed in the wrong column. Note the distance runs to DWELLINGS, not to property lines, so a large lot with distant neighbours may be unrestricted while a small one is effectively closed. The 20 ft property line rule at § 6-7.5 covers chickens, geese, ducks, turkeys, pigeons, doves, squabs, hares and rabbits, and does not apply to bees.

• It is unlawful to keep or maintain any hive of bees in the city within 100 feet of any dwelling other than the one occupied by the beekeeper. 6-7.3

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.

Bee Keeping. Not permitted.

• A fresh water source must be provided within 20 feet of all hives and a sustaining food source must be provided on the property. SEC. 15-2707.
• Discovery of aggressive or "Africanized" beehives shall cause the immediately removal of the hives by the operator/owner. SEC. 15-2707.

The code defines apiaries but sets no standards for keeping them.

Beekeeping is a defined use permitted by right in the public and quasi-public zones, with no hive limit, setback or permit in the current code.

Hive limit: No hive count or setback is set. The 2024 rewrite left beekeeping as a permitted use with no numeric standards attached.

Note: Kerman rewrote its zoning code in 2024 under Ordinance 24-01. In the new Table 17.16-1, beekeeping is permitted BY RIGHT in the O and UR public and quasi-public zones, and no additional regulations are cross-referenced against it. The permit requirement, five-acre minimum and 30 ft distance shown here come from § 17.32.020(K) in the old numbering and have not been found in the current code. They may have been repealed by the rewrite or moved to a renumbered section. A search of the whole current code in 2026 returned only the zone table and the definitions, so those requirements appear to have been repealed by the rewrite rather than renumbered, and they have been removed from this card. Beekeeping is defined as a use and is permitted by right in the O and UR zones, and apiculture is included in the code’s definition of agriculture. No hive count, setback or permit survives anywhere in the current code. Confirm with the city before siting hives, since a zone table is a shorter answer than a beekeeping chapter would be.

• Beekeeping is permitted by right in the O and UR public and quasi-public zones, with no additional regulations cross-referenced against it. 17.16.020 Table 17.16-1
• "Beekeeping" means the keeping and maintenance of a collection of hives or colonies of bees. Also known as "apiary." 17.120.020
• "Agriculture" and "agricultural use" both mean the practice of farming, including tilling of soil, the raising of crops, horticulture, viticulture, aviculture, apiculture, livestock grazing, the raising of small animals and poultry, domestic livestock farming, dairying and animal husbandry. 17.120.020

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.

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.

No person shall keep or maintain within the city any stand of bees except in conjunction with an existing agricultural operation

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.

Beekeeping is a defined use with its own row in the zoning use tables, and it is allowed by right in the RCO and UR special purpose zones. A second row exists in the residential zones table covering eight districts, which has not been read cell by cell, so the residential answer is unresolved. The code sets no hive count and no setbacks.

Hive limit: No hive count or setback anywhere in the code. Reedley controls beekeeping by which zone it is allowed in, not by number.

Note: Reedley regulates beekeeping the way it regulates any other land use, through a table rather than a chapter, so the answer depends entirely on your zone. The code defines beekeeping at § 10.120.030 as the keeping and maintenance of a collection of hives or colonies of bees, also known as an apiary, and separately defines agriculture to include apiculture. In the special purpose zones table at § 10.16.020, beekeeping carries a P in both the RCO and UR columns, meaning allowed by right with no permit. There is a second beekeeping row in the residential zones table at § 10.10.020, covering RE, R-1(SP), MDR, HDR, R-1-6, R-1-7, R-1-9 and R-1-12, and that row has not been read column by column, so this card does not say which of those zones allow it. If your parcel is residential, open § 10.10.020 and read the beekeeping row against the header, because a P, a C for conditional use permit and a dash for not allowed all appear in these tables and the difference matters. Nothing in the code sets a hive count, a setback or a permit beyond whatever the table itself requires. California still requires apiary registration with the Fresno County agricultural commissioner.

• Beekeeping is allowed by right in the RCO and UR special purpose zones. § 10.16.020, Table 10.16-A
• A beekeeping row also appears in the residential zones use table covering RE, R-1(SP), MDR, HDR, R-1-6, R-1-7, R-1-9 and R-1-12. Read that row against the header before relying on any answer for a residential parcel. § 10.10.020, Table 10.10-A
• Beekeeping is defined as the keeping and maintenance of a collection of hives or colonies of bees, also known as an apiary. § 10.120.030
• Agriculture is defined to include apiculture. § 10.120.020
• Honey-producing bees are expressly excepted from the definition of an animal venomous to human beings, so the venomous-animal restrictions do not reach them. § 5-3-1

In the City of San Joaquin, there are no municipal codes set in place for the ownership of apiaries.

Apiaries are not permitted by right anywhere in the code. They appear in two zoning districts only, the U-R and the R-A, and in both they need a conditional use permit.

Hive limit: No hive count is set. The control is the conditional use permit, and any limit is likely to be written into the permit conditions rather than the code.

Note: Sanger allows apiaries, but only with a conditional use permit, and that difference is worth taking seriously before you buy bees. A conditional use permit is an application with a fee, usually a public hearing, and a decision the city is entitled to refuse or to grant with conditions attached. It is not a formality you complete afterwards. Apiaries appear in the conditional use lists of two different zoning articles, so the first thing to establish is whether your parcel is in one of those districts at all, because we found no district where apiaries are allowed by right. Our earlier card described this as a permitted use with no standards attached, which would have led you to expect nothing more than a form.

• In the U-R district, apiaries are permitted only after securing a conditional use permit under §§ 90-998 to 90-1001. § 90-123(1)
• In the R-A district, apiaries are permitted only after securing a conditional use permit under §§ 90-998 to 90-1001. § 90-183(1)
• The commission may also treat a use as similar in nature to an apiary and consistent with the district, which is the route by which an unlisted but comparable use can be permitted. §§ 90-123, 90-183

In the City of Selma, there are no municipal codes set in place for the ownership of apiaries.