Kern County Beekeeping Regulations

Four distances, and the largest one is a quarter of a mile from any school or park. Also twenty feet from a state highway or county road right of way, two hundred feet from an occupied residence or business building unless the occupants consent in writing, and two hundred feet from a swimming pool or a regularly used air strip. Annual registration with the Kern County agricultural commissioner is required and failing to do it is a misdemeanour.

Hive limit: No hive count anywhere in the chapter. Kern controls apiaries by distance and registration rather than by number, which is what you would expect in a county this central to commercial pollination.

Note: Work the quarter mile first, because it is the one that will decide your site. § 7.50.005(B) puts one quarter of a mile, thirteen hundred and twenty feet, between an apiary and the outside boundary of any school or park, and unlike the two hundred foot distance it cannot be waived by anyone. Then the rest: twenty feet from the right of way of a state highway or county road, two hundred feet from any occupied residence or any building occupied for business, and two hundred feet from a swimming pool or an air strip in regular use. The two hundred feet from a residence or business is the only one you can negotiate, and it takes written consent from the people occupying that building. Register every year. Registration goes to the Kern County agricultural commissioner, lists the number of colonies in each apiary and where they are, and is due on 1 January or within thirty days after, or within thirty days of bringing bees into the county. It runs to the following 1 January. Take that deadline seriously: § 7.50.007 makes failure to register, and failure to identify an apiary, a misdemeanour, while every other breach of this chapter is only an infraction. The identification sign is required only for an apiary on premises other than your own residence, so a home apiary needs none. Where one is required it goes on the longer side of the hive or super, on the entrance side of the apiary, in printed or stencilled black letters at least an inch high on white or another contrasting colour. Provide water suitable for bees in immediate proximity to the apiary, and get written permission from the landowner before placing an apiary on land that is not yours. The chapter is enforced by the Department of Agriculture and Measurement Standards, which may charge fees for doing so. Beekeeping is separately listed as a permitted use in several zoning districts, and in the residential one at § 19.60.020 it is permitted for the domestic use of the occupant with no killing or dressing of animals for commercial purposes.

• Keep an apiary at least one quarter of a mile, thirteen hundred and twenty feet, from the outside boundary of any school or park. No consent or waiver is provided for this distance. § 7.50.005(B)
• Keep an apiary at least twenty feet from the right of way of a state highway or county road. § 7.50.005(A)
• Keep an apiary at least two hundred feet from any occupied residence, or any building occupied for business purposes, unless the people occupying that building give written consent to a lesser distance. § 7.50.005(C)
• Keep an apiary at least two hundred feet from a swimming pool, or from an air strip used by airplanes on a regular basis. § 7.50.005(D)
• Register the number of colonies in each apiary and its location with the Kern County agricultural commissioner, on 1 January each year or within thirty days after, or within thirty days of bringing bees into the county. Registration runs until the following 1 January. Failing to register is a misdemeanour. §§ 7.50.002, 7.50.007(A)
• An apiary on premises other than your own residence must carry a sign with the name, address and telephone number of the owner or person in possession, or a statement that they have no telephone. Fix it to the longer side of the hive or super, prominently placed on the entrance side of the apiary, in printed or stencilled black letters at least one inch high on white or another contrasting colour, and keep it there at all times. Failing to identify an apiary is a misdemeanour. §§ 7.50.003, 7.50.007(A)
• Get written permission from the owner or the person entitled to possession before placing an apiary on land that is not yours. § 7.50.004
• Provide the bees with an adequate supply of water of a quality suitable for them, available in immediate proximity to the apiary. § 7.50.006
• Every breach of this chapter other than registration and identification is an infraction, and any breach may also draw an administrative penalty under Ch. 8.54. The Department of Agriculture and Measurement Standards enforces the chapter and the agricultural commissioner may charge fees for doing so. §§ 7.50.007, 7.50.008

Bees may be raised for domestic use in the suburban residential zone. A separate zone allows honey extraction and processing but expressly excludes keeping bees on the site.

Hive limit: No hive count is set. The qualifier is purpose rather than number: the permission is for domestic use.

Note: Arvin lets you raise bees for domestic use in the suburban residential zone, which is the ordinary hobbyist case, and it does so without setting a hive count. The words "for domestic use" are the operative limit, so a hobby apiary is clearly contemplated and a commercial operation in a residential zone is not. There is a second provision worth knowing about if you are thinking beyond your own back garden: another zone permits honey extraction and processing, but expressly not the keeping of bees on the same site. That is a genuinely helpful split, because it means a honey house is a separate question from an apiary and can sit somewhere the bees may not. Arvin also treats apiculture as a protected agricultural activity under its right-to-farm chapter.

• Breeding, hatching, raising and fattening of poultry, fowl, birds, rabbits, chinchillas, fish, frogs and bees for domestic use is permitted. 17.16.010
• Honey extraction and processing is a permitted use, not including the on-site keeping of bees. 17.28.020
• Apiculture is within the definition of an agricultural activity for the right-to-farm chapter. 8.24.030

Bees may be kept in the R-S Residential Suburban zone for the household's own use, with no hive limit. The zone's animal setbacks of 50 ft from a dwelling and 100 ft from the front lot line are written ambiguously and may or may not reach a hive.

Hive limit: No hive limit. Keeping is for the household's own use; commercial raising is barred.

Note: Read in full in 2026. The card cited § 17.12.010, which is superseded; the live provision is § 17.10.040(C). Bees are named outright as a permitted kind of animal keeping in the R-S Residential Suburban zone, for the household's own use, with no hive number set and no bee-specific setback. The catch is a genuine ambiguity in the code rather than a gap in this record. The zone's animal setbacks — 50 ft from any dwelling, 100 ft from the front lot line, 10 ft from the street side of a corner lot, 100 ft from a park, school or hospital — begin "No fowl or animals", which would cover bees, but then speak of pens, coops, stables and corrals housing livestock or poultry, which reads as though written for other animals. Those distances are not shown in the columns above precisely because it is unsettled, and 100 ft from a front lot line would rule out most suburban lots if it does apply. Ask the city before siting a hive. Note commercial raising is prohibited outright.

• Breeding, hatching, raising and keeping of poultry, fowl, rabbits, chinchillas, Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs, fish, frogs and BEES is permitted for the domestic use of the resident or occupant of the lot. No number is specified for bees. 17.10.040(C)(1)(a)
• No fowl or animals, nor any pen, coop, stable, corral or other structure housing livestock or poultry, may be kept within 50 ft of any dwelling or structure used for human habitation, 100 ft of the front lot line, 10 ft of the street side of a corner lot, or 100 ft of any public park, school, hospital or similar institution. The first limb says "animals", which would take in bees; the structures limb names only livestock and poultry. Ask the city which reading applies before siting a hive. 17.10.040(C)(2)
• Raising, killing or dressing any such animals or poultry for commercial purposes is prohibited, so the allowance covers household beekeeping only. 17.10.040(C)(2)(e)

Agricultural uses are permitted in the RA residential and agricultural district with no numerical limit on animals, subject to proper housing and a nuisance standard. Beekeeping is not named, and the clause barring endangered, rare or exotic species does not reach managed honey bees on its natural reading.

Hive limit: No hive count is set. The district rule is that no numerical limit is enforced provided housing is not overcrowded and does not become a nuisance, though that is written about animal housing generally rather than about hives.

Note: California City permits agricultural uses in its RA residential and agricultural district, and beekeeping sits inside that permission rather than being named on its own. The district sets no numerical limit on animals, provided their housing is not overcrowded and does not become a nuisance, so there is no hive count to work to. What made this card difficult is a single sentence at the end of the same paragraph, which says no person may keep an endangered, rare or exotic species of bird, mammal, fish, amphibian, reptile, spider, scorpion or other insect, including bees. Read quickly that looks like a ban on bees. It is not. The words endangered, rare or exotic species of govern the entire list that follows, and bees are mentioned only to make clear they count as insects for that purpose. On the other reading the same sentence would ban keeping any bird or any fish in a district built around agriculture, which cannot be right. A managed honey bee colony is neither endangered nor rare, and exotic in this sort of provision means an unusual or undomesticated species, which is close to the opposite of a honey bee. That said, the wording is loose enough that someone determined to object could try to argue it, so if you are investing in an apiary here it is worth writing to the city and getting their reading on record. There is also a Farm Animal Overlay for keeping farm animals as an accessory use, but note it expressly forbids commercial activity, so it is not a route to a honey business. One correction we owe you: our earlier card quoted the code as permitting "the keeping of… bees". The code says no such thing. It permits the keeping of poultry and rabbits or similar livestock, and the word bees appears only in the restriction at the other end of the paragraph.

• Agricultural uses are a permitted use, including the keeping of poultry and rabbits or similar livestock, kept in proper housing and enclosed areas. No numerical limit is enforced provided the housing is not overcrowded and does not become a nuisance to neighbours or the neighbourhood. 9-2.401(c)
• No person may raise, breed, keep or maintain an endangered, rare or exotic species of bird, mammal, fish, amphibian, reptile, spider, scorpion or other insect, including bees. The qualifier applies to the whole list, so this bars endangered, rare or exotic bees rather than beekeeping generally. 9-2.401(c)
• An overlay zone may permit the keeping of farm animals accessory to a permitted use. No commercial activities may be undertaken under this section. The same endangered, rare or exotic species clause is repeated. 9-2.2407(a), (d), (f)
• Accessory structures are subject to distances of one hundred feet from the front lot line, twenty five feet from the side lot lines and ten feet from the rear lot line. The front lot line requirement is written as a maximum rather than a minimum, so confirm how the city applies it. 9-2.2407(b)

A noncommercial apiary is permitted, but every hive must be at least 400 feet from any street, road, highway, public school, park or occupied dwelling other than the owner's or caretaker's.

Hive limit: No hive count is set. The binding constraint is the 400 foot separation, which in practice decides whether you can keep bees at all.

Note: Delano permits a noncommercial apiary on paper, and then attaches a distance that almost no one can meet. Every hive has to be at least 400 feet from any street, road or highway, from any public school or park, and from any occupied dwelling other than your own or your caretaker's. Take that literally and you need a clear circle roughly 400 feet in every direction, which is about eleven and a half acres containing no road and no neighbour's house. On an ordinary residential or small farm parcel that cannot be done. So read this as a rule that works on large open agricultural land and effectively excludes everyone else, and do not assume the word noncommercial means it was written with a hobbyist in mind. If your land is not that big, the conversation to have with the city is whether any variance or alternative siting is available, and it is worth asking in writing. Beekeeping is also marked as a permitted use in the agricultural district use table, which is the setting where the 400 foot rule is actually achievable.

• Hives or boxes must be placed a minimum of 400 feet from any street, road, highway, public school, park or any occupied dwelling, except the dwelling of the owner or caretaker of the apiary. 20.11.40(6)
• Bee keeping is marked as a permitted use in the agricultural use regulations table. 20.7.30
• Apiculture is within the right to farm provisions as a protected agricultural commodity. 20.10.270

Buildings or hives for apiaries must be at least 75 ft from any neighbouring residence. No hive limit, no permit and no other bee-specific rule.

Hive limit: No hive limit. The only rule is the 75 ft distance to a neighbouring residence.

Note: Read in 2026. This card previously carried no rule and no link at all, and the rule was a single plain sentence: hives must be at least 75 ft from any neighbouring residence. There is no hive limit, no permit and nothing else specific to bees. Note the distance runs to a neighbouring RESIDENCE rather than to a property line, so a deep lot may be comfortable where a narrow one is not. The 200 ft setbacks and 10-acre minimum elsewhere in the same section apply to poultry and egg farms and to livestock, and bees are not on either list, so they do not apply here.

• Buildings or hives for apiaries may not be closer than 75 feet to any neighbouring residence. 18.80.030(A)(1)

Not more than six colonies on one lot, repeated across four zones, with an exception allowing more during the pollination period for an owner growing almonds or another crop that needs bees.

Hive limit: Six colonies per lot. The cap lifts for the pollination period where the owner grows almonds or another crop requiring pollination.

Note: McFarland gives you six colonies per lot, and repeats that same limit in four different zoning chapters, so six is the number wherever you are in the city. It is a workable hobby allowance. Two details are worth understanding. First, the code defines a colony by the box: a group of bees with one queen in a standard hive of twenty by sixteen and a quarter by nine and five eighths inches, which is a standard deep. If you run your colonies as double deeps, as many beekeepers do, ask the city how they count, because on a strict reading of that definition a double deep could be counted as two of your six. Get the answer before you build up rather than after. Second, there is a sensible exception that few codes bother with: if you grow almonds, or any other crop that needs pollinating, you may bring in as many colonies as the pollination requires for the length of that period. That is the code recognising how pollination actually works, and it is the sort of clause worth pointing other cities at.

• Bees are a permitted use provided that not more than six colonies are maintained on one lot. 17.20.020, 17.24.020, 17.28.020, 17.96.020
• If the owner or tenant is growing almond trees or any other crop needing bees for pollination, the number of colonies necessary for that pollination may exceed six during the applicable pollination period. 17.96.020
• A colony means a group of bees with one queen kept in a standard California-type hive measuring twenty inches by sixteen and one-fourth inches by nine and five-eighths inches. 17.04.210
• Breeding, hatching, raising and fattening of bees is permitted for the domestic use of the resident occupant of the lot. 17.48.010

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.

Keeping of Animals in agriculural zones; beekeeping could be allowed after a risk assessment is made.

Beekeeping is an agricultural-zone use. A noncommercial apiary needs a conditional use permit and must sit at least 400 ft from any street, road, highway, public school, park or occupied dwelling other than the beekeeper's own.

Hive limit: No hive limit stated. The constraint is the 400 ft setback and, for hobby apiaries, a conditional use permit.

Note: Read in full in 2026. Both published figures are confirmed, and the 400 ft applies to roads and to dwellings alike. What the card never said is which case they attach to. Taft inverts the usual pattern: beekeeping as an agricultural use is simply permitted in the A district, but a NONCOMMERCIAL apiary is a conditional use needing a permit, and it carries the 400 ft setback from any street, road, highway, public school, park or occupied dwelling that is not your own. In practice that distance rules out anything but a large parcel, so a hobby hive in Taft is harder to place than a commercial one. Note both routes are confined to the agricultural zone; the residential districts are not covered by this allowance.

• Beekeeping is listed as "P" in the agricultural district table, meaning permitted subject to a consistency assessment. 6-7-3, Table 7.A
• A noncommercial apiary is a conditionally permitted use requiring an approved conditional use permit under § 6-2-5, provided that hives and boxes are placed a minimum of 400 feet from any street, road, highway, public school, park or occupied dwelling, other than that of the owner or caretaker of the apiary. 6-12-4(D)(5)(f)
• The keeping of animals and husbandry uses must not create adverse impacts on adjacent properties through dust, noise, odour, fumes, bright light, visual blight or insect infestation, and must also satisfy the rules of the zone district they sit in. 6-12-4(A), (B)
• The city's right-to-farm provisions protect a commercial agricultural operation from being declared a nuisance if it is run to accepted local standards and has operated for more than three years without being a nuisance when it began. 6-11-28

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 permitted by right in the A-E and A-L agricultural districts and not allowed in Open Space or Public Facilities. No hive count, setback or permit is attached.

Hive limit: No hive limit and no setback. The rule is which district you are in.

Note: Read in full in 2026. The card cited Chapter 17.19 and table 17-3, both superseded; the live provision is Table 2-1 at § 17.22.050. Beekeeping is permitted outright in the A-E and A-L agricultural districts and is expressly NOT permitted in Open Space or Public Facilities. Nothing else attaches to it: the table has a column for specific use regulations, other uses point into it, and beekeeping's entry is blank, so there is no hive count, setback or permit to satisfy. One limit on this card: Table 2-1 covers only the agriculture, open space and public facility zones. What a residential lot in Wasco may do is set by a different table that has not been read.

• Beekeeping is marked "P", a permitted use, requiring no planning permit. 17.22.050, Table 2-1
• Beekeeping is marked "---", meaning the use is not permitted in those zones. 17.22.050, Table 2-1
• The table's Specific Use Regulations column is blank for beekeeping, so no further standards attach to it. Other uses in the same table do carry cross-references, so the blank is deliberate rather than an omission. 17.22.050, Table 2-1
• Agriculture is defined to include apiaries, alongside farming, dairying, pasteurizing and grazing, horticulture, floriculture, viticulture and animal and poultry husbandry. 17.90.020