Mendocino County Beekeeping Regulations

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

Hive limit: (D) Apiaries, provided that no more than two (2) working hives may be kept on parcels of forty thousand (40,000) square feet or less.

No local beekeeping rule found in the municipal code. State registration with the county agricultural commissioner still applies.

Note: Searched thoroughly in 2026 and no beekeeping provision was found: no hive count, no setback, no permit and no prohibition. Worth saying how far that search went, because Fort Bragg publishes three separate books. We read the whole of Title 7 Animals, both the Coastal and the Inland Land Use and Development Codes at the articles covering allowable land uses and standards for specific uses, the glossary, and the full residential zoning chapter, and none of them mentions bees. A separate hand search of the code produced the same result. State registration with the Mendocino County Agricultural Commissioner still applies, and it is worth reading the county card alongside this one.

No local beekeeping rule found in the municipal code. State registration with the county agricultural commissioner still applies.

Note: Searched against the live code in 2026 with no result, so this card no longer reads as unknown. Three caveats are worth carrying, each learned from a real California code this year. A code can regulate bees without naming them, by folding beekeeping into a defined use class such as "agriculture" or "animal husbandry" and then regulating that class in a zoning table. Vocabulary can hide a rule outright, "bee culture" being the most obscure term found so far. And obligations can sit outside the animals and zoning titles entirely, including apiary provisions in wildland-urban interface fire codes. Check Mendocino County’s own card as well as this one, since county and city rules differ and the county’s may be the one that binds you. California still requires apiary registration with the county agricultural commissioner.

Up to four hives are allowed by right on a lot of at least 4,000 square feet, banded by lot size, with a ten foot setback, a water source within twenty feet and a six to seven foot flyway barrier where a lot line is within twenty five feet. Colonies must be registered with the Mendocino County Agriculture Commissioner.

Hive limit: Banded by lot size, with a 4,000 sq ft minimum for any apiary at all. Above 10,001 sq ft the cap is not four but a density: one extra hive for every additional 2,500 sq ft.

Note: Ukiah is more welcoming to beekeepers than our earlier card suggested, and the correction is worth stating plainly: we previously said one hive per lot subject to a use permit from the Zoning Administrator, and the current section says nothing of the kind. You may keep up to four hives, and the number is set by your lot. You need at least 4,000 square feet to have an apiary at all. Between 4,000 and 10,000 square feet you may have two hives. From 10,001 square feet up to an acre you may have four. Above 10,001 square feet you are not actually capped at four: you may add a hive for every extra 2,500 square feet of lot, which is a density rather than a ceiling, even though the section opens by saying four or fewer. The siting rules are straightforward. Keep hives out of the front yard and ten feet from your side and rear property lines. Put a water source within twenty feet of the hives and keep it from going stagnant. And where any lot line is within twenty five feet of the hive opening, build a flyway barrier between six and seven feet tall, running parallel to that line and extending five feet past the hive on both sides, so the bees are pushed up over head height. A hedge counts, and a hedge is allowed to grow taller than seven feet as long as you plant it at four feet and choose something that will reach six. If your hives are more than twenty five feet from every boundary you do not need a barrier at all. One thing to raise with the city: the front yard rule and the ten foot setback are written with the word should, while the water and barrier rules say shall. That difference usually means the first two are advisory, but it is worth asking rather than assuming, because those are exactly the points a neighbour complaint would turn on. Finally, register your colonies with the Mendocino County Agriculture Commissioner, and tell them again if you move the bees.

• The minimum lot size for an apiary is 4,000 square feet. Lots of 4,000 to 10,000 square feet may have two hives; lots of 10,001 square feet to one acre may have four. On any lot of 10,001 square feet or larger more than four hives may be kept, provided there is an additional 2,500 square feet of lot area for each extra hive. Where a skep, barrel, log gum or other container is used instead of boxes, its dimensions must not exceed the same limits. 9381(1)(a)(i)-(ii)
• Hives should not be kept in any required front yard area, and hives in side or rear yards should keep a minimum ten foot setback from side and rear property lines. Note that the code uses "should" here rather than "shall", so ask the city whether it treats these as binding. 9381(1)(b)(i)
• Hives and apiaries must be kept so as to facilitate inspection and maintained in sound and usable condition, and there must be one adequate and accessible water source on site within twenty feet of the hives, maintained so that it does not become stagnant. 9381(1)(b)(ii)-(iii)
• A flyway barrier between six and seven feet high must be erected parallel to the lot line, between the hive opening and any lot line within twenty five feet. It may be a wall, solid fence, dense vegetation or a combination, and must extend five feet beyond the hive in each direction. A dense vegetation barrier is not capped at seven feet provided the initial planting is four feet high and the species normally reaches six feet or more. Barriers must be kept in good condition so all bees are forced to fly at least six feet above ground level. 9381(1)(b)(iv)
• All beekeepers must register their colonies with the Mendocino County Agriculture Commissioner, must comply with state law including Food and Agricultural Code Division 13 Chapter 1, and must notify the Commissioner when colonies are relocated. 9381(2)
• Animals, livestock, poultry or bees kept, bred or maintained for any purpose, other than a legally permitted kennel, pet store or approved temporary use, and in violation of any provision of the code, are a prohibited nuisance. 3402(R)

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