Placer County Beekeeping Regulations

A full apiary code: registration with the commissioner, water within reach, 25 ft setbacks for non-commercial apiaries or a flyway barrier instead, and hive caps by zone.

Hive limit: Two colonies in the RS single-family zone. Five colonies per acre elsewhere, capped at 100 hives in one location, with seasonal and pollination exceptions.

Note: Placer County has the most complete and, for a working beekeeper, the most sensible apiary rules found anywhere in this dataset. It distinguishes hobbyists of nine or fewer colonies, who register but pay no fee, from commercial beekeepers of ten or more. Non-commercial hives need 25 feet to the neighbouring boundary, or you can drop that entirely by putting up a six-foot flyway barrier or raising the hives above 12 feet. Water must be within half a mile naturally or 150 feet artificially. Two colonies in the single-family zone, five per acre elsewhere. The provision worth knowing if you run bees commercially is the one-mile separation between commercial apiaries: keeping a location occupied and registered every year is what preserves your claim to it, so an annual registration here protects your forage as well as your paperwork.

• The article supplements and should be read with the California Apiary Protection Act, sections 29000 to 29321 of the Food and Agricultural Code, and Placer County Code section 17.56.050. Commercial beekeeping is permitted. 6.32.010
• All beekeepers must register with the commissioner as required under the Apiary Protection Act, and all except hobbyist beekeepers must pay the registration fees. A beekeeper operating on land they do not own must provide the owner’s written permission to the commissioner on request. 6.32.030(A)-(B)
• An apiary needs either a natural water supply such as a lake, pond or river within half a mile, or an artificial supply maintained within 150 feet. Failure to provide water is a public nuisance. 6.32.030(C)
• Hives must be set back 25 feet from neighbouring property boundaries, unless a flyway barrier at least six feet tall is placed between the hives and the adjoining property and extends six feet to either side, or the hives sit on a rooftop or surface more than 12 feet above the ground. 6.32.030(E)
• A 50 foot setback from all property boundaries, except parcels the beekeeper controls, and 50 feet from the edge of any public roadway easement. Commercial apiaries must be at least one mile from other commercial apiaries, unless registered before 1 January 2022 or operating temporarily as a pollinator apiary. Each location must be occupied and registered annually to keep its location status and separation protections. 6.32.030(D)
• No more than two colonies in the RS single-family residential zone. All other districts allow up to five colonies per acre and no more than 100 hives in one location, with exceptions for three-day transport consolidation, temporary pollinator apiaries, and the period from 1 October to 31 January. Three nucleus colonies count as one colony. 6.32.030(F)
• Bees must not be transported, or the transporting vehicle parked, so as to constitute a public nuisance. An apiary the commissioner determines to be abandoned is a public nuisance. 6.32.030(G)-(H)
• The Agricultural Commissioner enforces both this article and the California Apiary Protection Act within the county. A person who violates a requirement of the Act is subject to the exclusive penalties and enforcement prescribed by the Act itself. 6.32.040

Apiaries are permitted by right in the Exclusive Agricultural (A-1) district. They are in the list of uses allowed outright, not the list that needs a use permit, so no application, hearing or fee attaches to them. The section sets no hive count and no setbacks.

Hive limit: None in the A-1 district listing. Apiaries are simply a permitted use, and permitted by right with no conditions is a complete answer rather than a gap.

Note: The first question in Auburn is which zone your parcel is in, because that is what the code turns on. § 159.038 sets out the Exclusive Agricultural (A-1) district and gives two lists. The first is uses permitted outright, and apiaries are on it, alongside everything permitted in the R-1 district, agriculture including animal husbandry and livestock farming, aviaries, crop and tree farming, electrical distribution substations and stables. The second list needs a use permit and covers feed and animal sales yards, fertilizer plants, industrial plants processing agricultural products and kennels. Apiaries are in the first list, so in A-1 you may keep bees without applying for anything, and the section attaches no hive count and no setbacks. What this reading does not tell you is what happens on a parcel that is not zoned A-1. Only the A-1 section has been read, and while a zoning code of this kind usually means a use not listed for a district is not allowed there, that is an inference rather than something the code says about bees. If your parcel is residential, ask the planning department directly rather than assuming either answer. California still requires apiary registration with the Placer County agricultural commissioner whatever the city does.

• Apiaries are a use permitted by right in the Exclusive Agricultural (A-1) district, with no use permit required. § 159.038
• The A-1 district also permits everything permitted in the R-1 district, agriculture including animal husbandry and livestock farming, aviaries, crop and tree farming, electrical distribution substations and stables. § 159.038
• Feed and animal sales yards, fertilizer plants, industrial plants processing agricultural products and kennels need a use permit in A-1. Apiaries do not. § 159.038
• Whether apiaries are allowed outside the A-1 district has not been established from the code. Ask the planning department before relying on either answer for a residential parcel. Ch. 159

Permitted Accessory Uses for Agricultural Use Types: Apiaries and honey extraction plants.

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

Beekeeping is permitted by right, with no town approval, in the RA, RE and RR zones. It is not allowed in the RS or RM/RH residential zones.

Hive limit: No hive count or setback is attached to beekeeping in the table. General animal-keeping standards apply.

Note: Loomis answers the beekeeping question in a single row of its animal keeping table. If your parcel is zoned RA, RE or RR you may keep bees without asking the town for anything, subject only to the general animal keeping standards. If it is zoned RS or RM/RH the activity is not allowed at all, so the zone your land carries decides the matter before any question of hive numbers or setbacks arises. Check your zoning first.

• Beekeeping is marked P, meaning permitted animal keeping with no town approval required, provided it complies with the general animal keeping standards of the section. 13.42.050 Table 4-1
• Beekeeping is marked with a dash, meaning the activity is not allowed in those zones. 13.42.050 Table 4-1

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

Two hives outside agricultural zones, but every hive must be 500 feet from any building in which people or animals normally live, including on agricultural land.

Hive limit: Two hives, except on land zoned for agricultural purposes where the count is unrestricted. The 500 ft separation applies either way.

Note: The hive limit in Roseville is not the obstacle; the distance is. Every hive must sit at least 500 feet from any building where people or animals normally live, and unusually that rule applies on agricultural land as well as everywhere else, so the usual farm exemption does not help. On an ordinary residential lot that distance cannot be met. The route that exists is § 7.36.100, a special permit from the chief of police, who may relax the standards after considering things like prevailing winds, drainage and sanitation. If you want bees in Roseville, that conversation is the whole task.

• No person shall keep more than two hives of bees, except upon property zoned for agricultural purposes under the zoning code. 7.36.070
• Bees, whether kept under section 7.36.070 or upon agriculturally zoned premises, must be kept at least 500 feet from any building or structure in which persons or animals normally live or are kept. 7.36.080
• A special permit may be granted for keeping animals not in strict conformity with the chapter if the chief of police or a designee finds that because of soil, drainage, prevailing winds, absence of insect life, unusually effective sanitation measures, population density, the innocuousness of the animal or like conditions, the public health and welfare will not be endangered. 7.36.100