San Joaquin County Beekeeping Regulations

Not permitted on parcels less than 1 acre.

Escalon sets no beekeeping standards. Apiculture is named within the right-to-farm definition of an agricultural operation.

Hive limit: No hive count, setback or permit anywhere in the code.

Note: Escalon sets no hive count, setback or permit. Its only mention of bees is the word apiculture inside the right-to-farm chapter’s definition of an agricultural operation, which exists to protect established farming from later nuisance complaints rather than to grant permission. Confirm with the city which districts allow agricultural uses, and register with the San Joaquin County Agricultural Commissioner.

• An agricultural operation includes viticulture, horticulture, timber or apiculture, the raising of livestock, fur bearing animals, fish and poultry, and the commercial agricultural practices incident to those operations. Right to Farm definitions

Bees need a lot of at least one acre, zoning permission, and a permit from animal control, with hives 200 feet from other dwellings and 50 feet from any property line.

Hive limit: Two hives per lot or parcel, for noncommercial purposes.

Note: Lathrop asks for four things at once and they are hard to satisfy together: at least an acre of land, a zoning district that allows the use, a permit from the animal control department, and hives sited 200 feet from anyone else’s dwelling as well as any public place, school or park, and 50 feet from every property line. On a typical residential parcel that combination cannot be met, so treat this as effectively closed unless you have acreage. If you do, start with animal control rather than planning, since the permit and its neighbourhood finding are the gate everything else passes through.

• No person shall stable, keep, pasture or maintain any livestock or bees within the city on any lot less than one acre. 6.16.030(B)(1)
• No hive of bees may be kept on any lot unless the use is allowed under the zoning code, and where zoning permits it no more than two hives may be kept for noncommercial purposes. 6.16.110(A)-(B)
• Anyone wishing to keep bees or beehives must first obtain a permit from the animal control department. The fee is set from time to time by resolution of the council. 6.16.110
• The animal control department may not issue a permit unless it finds that keeping the bees will not be detrimental to the health, safety and welfare of the neighbourhood, and that they will be housed not less than 200 feet from any dwelling unit other than the bee owner’s, or from any public place, school or park. 6.16.110(B)
• No more than two hives on any one lot or parcel, and no hive within 50 feet of any property line. 6.16.110(B)(3)
• Premises where bees are kept are subject to inspection for compliance. Failure to allow inspection is an infraction. 6.16.070

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

Manteca classes bees as insects rather than livestock, and sets no beekeeping standards.

Hive limit: No hive count, setback or permit was found in the code.

Note: Manteca does not regulate beekeeping directly and sets no hive count, setback or permit. Where bees do appear, they are classed as insects rather than as livestock, which matters because the livestock provisions and their acreage requirements do not reach them. That is an absence of regulation rather than an express permission, so confirm with the city before siting hives, and register with the San Joaquin County Agricultural Commissioner as state law requires.

• Bees are listed among insects, together with mosquitoes, beetles and butterflies. The separate definitions of livestock animals and poultry cover cattle, sheep, swine, goats, equine and fowl and do not include bees. Allowed use definitions

Keeping bees is unlawful in the residential and commercial zones. Apiaries fall within the agriculture use class and are allowed where agriculture is, with right to farm protection.

Hive limit: No hive count is set. The constraint is the zone: residential and commercial are closed to bees.

Note: Ripon does not allow bees where most people live. The code makes it unlawful to keep bees in the residential and commercial zones, naming bees alongside livestock, so a backyard hive in town is not an option. Bees are treated as agriculture here, and the code defines agriculture to include apiaries, so hives are allowed on land zoned for agriculture. If you have that land there is a genuine benefit worth knowing about: Ripon has a right to farm ordinance that expressly covers apiculture, which protects an established apiary from nuisance complaints by neighbours who move in later. That is unusual and it is in your favour. Two practical steps. Confirm your parcel zoning with the city before you buy bees rather than after, since the line between zones is what decides this. And register with the San Joaquin County Agricultural Commissioner, which state law requires wherever your hives sit. This rule is not easy to find in the code, so if a city official tells you something different, the section to point them to is 6.12.020.

• It is unlawful for any person to keep or maintain, or cause to be kept or maintained, any livestock or bees in the residential or commercial zones. 6.12.020
• Agriculture is defined as the use of land for farming, dairying, pasturing and grazing, horticulture, floriculture, viticulture, apiaries, and animal and poultry husbandry, so an apiary is an agricultural use. 16.12
• The right to farm chapter includes apiculture within agricultural operations, giving established operations protection from nuisance complaints by later arrivals. 16.200.010
• A maximum of ten animals per acre of land suitable for housing animals, excluding homes, shops and hay or grain storage areas. 6.12.010

Two hives per residentially zoned parcel, or more on RE land used as a market garden or urban farm, kept 20 feet from adjacent dwellings and from the street.

Hive limit: Two beehives per residentially zoned parcel, unless the parcel is zoned RE and used as a market garden or urban farm.

Note: Stockton is one of the friendlier Central Valley cities for a hobbyist. Two hives on a residential parcel, or more if your land is zoned RE and worked as a market garden or urban farm, and the code names urban beekeeping as a land use allowed in commercial and residential areas rather than tolerating it by silence. Keep hives 20 feet from a neighbouring dwelling and from the street, fence them so children and animals cannot reach them, and put up a six-foot flyway barrier only if the colony sits within 10 feet of a property line. One provision to know if you move bees for a living: anything being transported through Stockton, bees included, may not remain in the city more than 24 hours, and that rule sits in the animal code rather than with the beekeeping standards.

• It is unlawful to permanently keep, have or ranch more than two beehives on a single parcel of residentially zoned property, unless the parcel is zoned RE and used as a market garden or urban farm. 16.80.350(E)
• Hives must be placed in a quiet area at least 20 feet from any dwelling on an adjacent parcel. Where there is no fence or flyway barrier the hive entrance must face away from building entrances and walkways and toward the most distant property line, and a clear flight path of at least 10 feet must be kept in front of the entrance. 16.80.350(E)(1)-(3)
• Where a colony sits less than 10 feet from a property line the beekeeper must establish a flyway barrier at least six feet tall, extending 10 feet beyond the colony on either side, solid or vegetative or both, forcing the bees to cross the property line at a height of six feet. All colonies must be at least 20 feet from a public sidewalk, alley, street or road. 16.80.350(E)(4)-(5)
• All bee equipment and hives must be maintained in good condition, and a substantial barrier or fence must be erected to prevent animals and children from coming into close contact with the hives. 16.80.350(E)(6)-(7)
• Urban beekeeping is the practice of keeping bee colonies in urban areas, and is allowed in commercial, residential hobby, and market garden or urban farm land uses. A beehive is an enclosed man-made structure in which honeybee species live and raise their young. Glossary
• Any domestic or wild animal, reptile, bees or fowl being transported or carried through the city may not remain within the city limits for longer than 24 hours from the time of entry. 6.04.460
• It is unlawful to keep an apiary within the city except where permitted within a particular zone or district as provided in the Development Code. 6.04.450

Apiaries are item (a) of Use Group No. 12, animal, poultry and fish farming. That group is permitted in some zones and conditionally permitted in others, with RE, LDR and M-1 named among them. Which of the three takes the outright permission and which the conditional use permit was not read reliably, so check the table before relying on either.

Hive limit: No colony cap. The control is which zone you are in and whether the group is permitted there outright or by conditional use permit.

Note: Tracy handles beekeeping through use groups rather than a beekeeping chapter, so the question is which zone you are in. Apiaries are item (a) of Use Group No. 12, which covers animal, poultry and fish farming including breeding, raising and maintaining. The table names RE, LDR and M-1 in connection with that group, splitting them between zones where it is permitted outright and zones where it needs a conditional use permit. The flattened text does not make the split reliable to read, so this card does not assert which is which, and you should open § 10.08.1080 and read the Use Group No. 12 row against its two column headings for your zone. The group carries two conditions worth knowing even though neither is aimed at bees: no animal slaughtering in any case except for home consumption, unless permitted as a conditional use under Use Group No. 15, and no feeding of garbage, refuse or offal. Nothing in the group sets a hive count or a setback for apiaries. California still requires apiary registration with the San Joaquin County agricultural commissioner.

• Apiaries are item (a) of Use Group No. 12, animal, poultry and fish farming, in the zoning use tables. § 10.08.1080
• Use Group No. 12 is permitted outright in some zones and conditionally permitted in others, with RE, LDR and M-1 named. Read the row against its column headings for your zone before relying on either. § 10.08.1080
• The group bars animal slaughtering except for home consumption, unless permitted as a conditional use under Use Group No. 15, and bars the feeding of garbage, refuse or offal. § 10.08.1080