San Luis Obispo County Beekeeping Regulations

Allowed with further requirements and must not constitute a public nuisance.

• No person shall place or keep an apiary, or cause or allow an apiary to remain, so close to a property boundary or a public or private road used by the public as to constitute a public nuisance or public hazard to persons using such road or property. 5.04.060
• Except in the case of an emergency, hives of bees being transported on, or parked adjacent to, public roads or highways at a time when the bees are flying shall have the bees substantially confined by screens or other means to the vehicle by which the bees are being transported. 5.04.060
• (1) Every apiary shall be provided with an adequate quantity of water by the apiary owner or his employee(s) prior to the time the apiary is set on a property; unless, in the event the property is leased, the landowner gives verifiable permission to use existing water situated on the land where the apiary is located. 5.04.060
• The commissioner is authorized, and may upon request of an agricultural producer or the owner or shipper of an apiary who requires a certificate of apiary inspection, to inspect and certify as to colonies being apparently free from Africanized honey bees, or any regulated honey bee disease or parasite. 5.04.050

Four hundred feet from all habitations, waivable in writing by the owner of the habitation, and three hundred feet from every highway, roadway or freeway, waivable in writing by the City Council. Every apiary needs a sign carrying your name, address, phone number and the current active registered brand of the apiary, and water provided when the set is made.

Hive limit: No colony cap. Arroyo Grande controls apiaries by distance, identification and water.

Note: Both distances here can be negotiated, and by different people, which is unusual and worth knowing. Keep four hundred feet from all habitations, unless the owner of a habitation gives you written permission to be closer, in which case that distance falls away for that building. Keep three hundred feet from every highway, roadway or freeway, and this one is waived not by a neighbour but by the Arroyo Grande City Council in writing, which may specify a shorter distance in the permission itself. The identification requirement has a detail most cities do not have. Your sign must be permanently displayed on the entrance side of the apiary, in black letters at least one inch high on a contrasting background, and it must state your name, address and phone number and the current active registered brand of the apiary. That brand is the state equipment serial number issued by the Department of Food and Agriculture, so you need to have applied for one before you can put a compliant sign up at all. Provide water at the time the set is made and maintain it while the apiary stays, unless the landowner gives written permission to use water already on the land. An apiary on someone else's land needs that landowner's permission, verbal or written. The chapter is enforced by the police department. The city readopted this chapter in April 2025, so it is current practice rather than a survival.

• Display a sign permanently on the entrance side of the apiary, in black letters at least one inch high on a contrasting background, stating your name, address and phone number and the current active registered brand of the apiary. § 6.24.010(A)
• Keep the apiary at least four hundred feet from all habitations, unless the owner of a habitation gives written permission to be closer to it. § 6.24.010(C)
• Keep the apiary at least three hundred feet from every highway, roadway or freeway. The Arroyo Grande City Council may give written permission for a shorter distance, but no shorter than the permission specifies. § 6.24.010(D)
• An apiary on land owned by someone else requires the landowner's permission, which may be verbal or written. § 6.24.010(B)
• Provide water at the time the set is made and maintain it for as long as the apiary stays on the property, unless the landowner gives written permission to use water already situated on the land. § 6.24.010(E)
• The police department enforces this chapter. § 6.24.020

Atascadero has no beekeeping chapter of its own. San Luis Obispo County Code Chapter 5.04, Bees, remains in effect in the city as an uncodified general ordinance.

Hive limit: Set by the county chapter, not by the city.

Note: Read San Luis Obispo County’s card rather than this one. Atascadero’s own municipal code contains no beekeeping rule; instead a table of uncodified ordinances records that County Code Chapter 5.04, Bees, remains in force in the city. That is an unusually easy thing to miss, because the rule is not in the animals title, not in the zoning title, and not absent either, but sitting in an appendix of provisions that were never codified. Ask the city which version of the county chapter it treats as current before relying on any figure.

• The table of general ordinances not codified but remaining in effect lists County Code Chapter 5.04, Bees, among the provisions that continue to apply in the city. GO.010 Table 3

No person, firm, or corporation shall keep bees within the city limits of El Paso de Robles; provided that nothing contained in this section shall be deemed to apply to the keeping of bees, for the purpose of study and observation, in a safe container, which is situated and kept within a school building. Beekeeping is defined as animal raising and is permitted in the A-1 zone. Bees must meet San Luis Obispo County Requirements.

Hive limit: The number of hives shall be limited to one for every seven thousand square feet of lot area and no more than six hives. 5.

• A six-foot wall, fence, or hedge shall be located between hives and adjacent lots, or hives shall be placed at a minimum of eight feet above ground level of the adjacent lot. 21.69.040
• A water source for bees shall be provided at all times on the property where the bees are kept to discourage bee visitation at swimming pools, hose bibs, and other water sources on adjacent public or surrounding property. 21.69.040

Apiaries are prohibited on any premises in the city, except within a lawfully permitted commercial animal operation.

Note: This card previously described water and identification requirements under a superseded section, which read as an invitation to keep bees. Ord. 24-04 (2024) prohibits apiaries citywide; the only carve-out is a lawfully permitted commercial animal operation, so hobby beekeeping is not allowed. Violations carry a penalty under § 91.99.

• No person shall keep upon any premises in the city any apiaries. 91.11(D)

• This section shall not apply to any lawfully permitted commercial animal operation. 91.11(F)

Two hives per parcel outside the agriculture district, at least 5 ft from every property line, entrances turned away from neighbours, screened or raised, and requeened every two years.

Hive limit: Two hives per parcel in every district except agriculture, which has no limit. More are possible with a minor use permit.

Note: Read in full in 2026 and corrected. This card previously said there were no municipal codes for apiaries while displaying a two-hive limit and a five-foot setback in the same view: the 2020 sentence had never been cleared when the 2026 reading landed. Morro Bay has a complete beekeeping standard at § 17.30.060(A). Two points worth planning around: the requeening interval here is two years, tighter than the three years seen elsewhere, and the screening requirement has an alternative, a hive set eight feet above ground satisfies it without a barrier.

• A maximum of two hives per parcel in all districts except the agriculture district, unless otherwise approved with a minor use permit. There is no limit in the agriculture district. 17.30.060(A)(1)
• Hives must be at least five feet from all property lines, with entrances facing away from or parallel to the nearest property lines. They must either be screened so bees fly over a six-foot barrier, which may be vegetative, before leaving the property, or be placed at least eight feet above the adjacent ground level. 17.30.060(A)(2)
• Hives must be managed to keep enough living space to prevent swarming, and requeened at least once every two years. Water must be available on the property at all times so bees do not visit pools and hose bibs nearby, and hive materials and equipment must be stored in a sealed container or a bee-proof enclosure. 17.30.060(A)(3)
• Bees or hives become a public nuisance, enforceable under Chapter 17.48, if colonies show defensive or objectionable behaviour or interfere with normal use of neighbouring property. 17.30.060(A)(4)
• These standards are in addition to Title 7, Animals, of the Morro Bay Municipal Code. 17.30.060

Pismo Beach prohibits keeping bees. § 6.04.060(B) lists the animals whose intentional raising or keeping is prohibited in the city, and bees are the first item. There is no permit route, no zoning exception and no minimum lot size that changes the answer.

Hive limit: Not a limit. Keeping bees is prohibited citywide, so the answer is none rather than a number.

Note: This is a straightforward prohibition and it is worth understanding how deliberately it is drafted, because the structure answers the obvious follow-up questions. § 6.04.060 sorts animals into three parts. Subsection A sets general standards for animals that may be kept. Subsection C is a permitted-with-conditions list, and it is generous: ten domestic birds with no minimum lot size, one head of cattle or one horse per acre, four sheep per acre, up to twenty five poultry or rabbits at one per two thousand square feet, and goats on a nine thousand square foot lot with the community development director's permit. Each comes with its own setbacks. Subsection B is the prohibited list, and bees are item one, alongside swine, mink and ferrets, turkeys, and lions, tigers, poisonous snakes and alligators. So the city had a mechanism for allowing an animal under conditions, used it repeatedly, and chose not to use it for bees. Subsection A.1 closes the remaining gap by stating that animals prohibited under subsection B are not household pets under any circumstances. The prohibition is on intentional raising or keeping, so a wild swarm that arrives on your property is a different matter, and you should call a removal service rather than assume you are in breach. One curiosity: the zoning title at § 17.006.0080 still defines an apiary as a place for keeping bees, a definition with nothing permissive behind it. If you want this changed, the route is the city council, since a prohibition adopted by ordinance can be amended by ordinance. Check whether your address is inside the city limits, because unincorporated San Luis Obispo County is a separate question with a different answer.

• The intentional raising or keeping of bees is prohibited in the city. § 6.04.060(B)(1)
• Animals prohibited under subsection B are not considered household pets under any circumstances, so the household pet exemption does not reach bees. § 6.04.060(A)(1)
• The permitted-with-conditions list in subsection C covers birds, cattle, horses, sheep, game fowl, poultry, rabbits and goats, each with its own minimum site area, density and setbacks. Bees are not among them. § 6.04.060(C)
• The zoning title still defines an apiary as a place for keeping bees, with no permissive provision attached to it. § 17.006.0080

Beekeeping is prohibited inside the city limits, except on school district land for study, or for agricultural purposes in a conservation/open space or agriculture zone.

Note: Amended in 2024. Note the second exception is zoning-based: beekeeping for agricultural purposes is allowed in a conservation/open space or agriculture district, so the ban is effectively on residential beekeeping. § 6.28.080 separately prohibits breeding under the same exceptions.

• No person, firm or corporation shall keep bees within the corporate limits; provided, that nothing herein shall be deemed to prohibit the keeping of bees for the purpose of study and observation in a hive or box situated within school district-owned property designated by the district for such educational purposes; or for agricultural purposes, located within a conservation/open space or agriculture zoning district. 6.28.070
• Breeding is separately prohibited within the city for livestock, poultry and domesticated animals other than household pets, under the same study and agricultural-zone exceptions. 6.28.080