San Mateo County Beekeeping Regulations

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

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, which agrees with the 2020 review, so the card no longer treats this as unknown. Two caveats a reader should keep, both learned from other California codes 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. And obligations can sit outside the animals and zoning titles altogether: some Bay Area cities put apiary provisions in their wildland-urban interface FIRE code, requiring a permit to use a smoker in a hazardous fire area. California still requires apiary registration with the county agricultural commissioner.

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.

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

Up to three beehives on any parcel as an incidental use, enclosed by fencing that prevents unauthorised access, with fresh water within 15 feet.

Hive limit: Three beehives per parcel, as an incidental use to a permitted use.

Note: Burlingame allows three hives on any parcel, treated as something incidental to whatever the land is already used for rather than as a use needing its own approval. Two conditions attach and both are sensible: fence or otherwise enclose the hives so people cannot get to them unauthorised, and have a permanent fresh water source on the same parcel, within 15 feet, in place before the bees arrive. Note that the fencing here is about keeping people out rather than lifting the flight path, which is unusual. Keeping bees outside those terms is treated as a nuisance under the animal chapter.

• Up to three beehives are permitted on any parcel as an incidental use to a permitted use, subject to the standards of the section. Specific land uses, Bees
• Hives must be placed on the parcel so that they are enclosed by fencing or a similar barrier preventing unauthorised access, and a permanent fresh water source must be provided on the same parcel before hives are established and maintained within 15 feet of them. Specific land uses, Bees (a)-(b)
• Keeping or maintaining any animal or bees otherwise than as provided in the chapter is a nuisance. The definition of venomous animals excludes bees. 9.08

Neither of Colma's animal chapters mentions bees. There is no hive count, setback or permit for beekeeping. The livestock prohibition at § 8.04.010 bars hogs, cattle, horses, goats, sheep, mules and any other livestock, and every animal it names is a mammal.

Hive limit: No hive count, setback or permit for bees anywhere in the animal chapters.

Note: Colma does not regulate beekeeping, and the two chapters that could have are both readable in full so you can check that yourself. Subchapter 8.01 covers animal control and 8.04 regulates livestock animals, and neither mentions bees, apiaries or hives anywhere. One clause is worth knowing about before you assume the question is closed. § 8.04.010 says no person shall keep or maintain premises for keeping or feeding hogs, pigs or swine, cattle, horses, goats, sheep, mules or any other livestock. Every animal it names is a mammal and bees are nowhere in the chapter, so reading any other livestock as catching an apiary would be a stretch. It is not an impossible stretch for a code enforcement officer to make, though, so if a neighbour complains it is the clause you will hear quoted. The only permit the chapter offers is not one you can use: § 8.04.040 lets the City Council permit non-profit organisations to keep livestock for an educational project, with health and sanitation standards and inspection by the City Health Officer. There is no residential equivalent. Colma is under two square miles and mostly cemeteries, so talk to your neighbours and the town before siting hives. California still requires apiary registration with the San Mateo County agricultural commissioner.

• Neither Subchapter 8.01 Animal Control nor Subchapter 8.04 Regulating Livestock Animals mentions bees, apiaries or hives. Ch. 8
• Keeping premises for hogs, pigs or swine, cattle, horses, goats, sheep, mules or any other livestock is prohibited. Every animal named is a mammal and bees are not mentioned, so whether this clause reaches an apiary is unresolved. Ask the town before relying on either reading. § 8.04.010
• The only permit route is for non-profit organisations running an educational project, granted by the City Council with health and sanitation standards and inspection by the City Health Officer. There is no residential permit. § 8.04.040

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.

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

Beehives for the noncommercial keeping of bees are expressly permitted, with no hive limit, setback or permit attached.

Hive limit: No hive count or setback is set.

Note: Foster City permits beehives for noncommercial beekeeping by name, in a provision added in 2024, and attaches no hive count, no setback and no permit to it. That combination of an express permission with no conditions is unusual and makes this one of the more straightforward places in the Bay Area to keep bees. The word to note is noncommercial: selling honey would take you outside the permission, so ask the city before doing that. Register with the San Mateo County Agricultural Commissioner as state law requires.

• The animal control chapter lists among the things that may be kept, at subsection D, beehives for the noncommercial keeping of bees. 6.04.410(D)

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 San Mateo 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.

• The bee hive or like place is situated more than fifty feet from any street, dwelling, or place of public assemblage, or the bees are in or on the dwelling of the owner of the swarm when reasonably necessary to allow the bees to commence working, to protect them from robber or killer bees, or for wintering. 2. 6.24.010

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 San Mateo 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.

Millbrae sets no beekeeping standards. Honey-producing bees are excluded from the definition of a venomous exotic animal.

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

Note: Millbrae has no beekeeping chapter and sets no hive count, setback or permit. The one mention of bees works in your favour: the exotic animal rules cover creatures that are venomous by sting, and expressly except honey-producing bees, so the permit those rules require does not apply to a hive. Treat that as an absence of local regulation rather than express permission, and register with the San Mateo County Agricultural Commissioner as state law requires.

• The exotic animal provisions cover animals venomous by bite, sting, touch or other means, except honey producing bees. 6.08.020

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

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.

A short, permissive article. Hives must be at least twenty five feet from any dwelling on an adjacent property, and every hive needs an adequate and constant water supply on site. Only parcels of three thousand square feet or less are capped, at two hives. Keeping bees otherwise than in accordance with the article is a public nuisance.

Hive limit: Two hives on a parcel of three thousand square feet or less. Above that size the article sets no number. There is no permit and no registration with the city.

Note: Redwood City rewrote this article in 2016 and what came out is one of the lighter regimes in the county. There are three rules. Keep every hive at least twenty five feet from any dwelling on an adjacent property, which is measured to the neighbour's house rather than to the property line, so a deep lot gives you more room than the number suggests. Provide an adequate and constant water supply on site for all hives. And if your parcel is three thousand square feet or less, you may keep no more than two hives. That last one is worth reading carefully, because it is a condition on small parcels rather than a general cap: the article says nothing at all about how many hives a larger lot may carry, so do not assume two is your ceiling. There is no permit, no application and no registration with the city. The enforcement provision is short and broad: bees not kept in accordance with the article are declared a public nuisance, which brings the city's ordinary code enforcement remedies into play. California still requires apiary registration with the San Mateo County agricultural commissioner whatever the city does.

• Keep every hive at least twenty five feet from any dwelling on an adjacent property. § 21.7
• Provide all hives with an adequate and constant water supply on site. § 21.8
• A parcel of three thousand square feet or less may not contain more than two hives. The article states no limit for larger parcels. § 21.8
• Bees not kept in accordance with this article are declared a public nuisance, subject to code enforcement and the remedies provided in the code. § 21.9

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 San Mateo 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.

A permit is required to keep bees, and the substantive rules are set by a City Council resolution rather than by the code.

Hive limit: Not stated in the code. Set by council resolution.

Note: San Carlos requires a permit to keep bees, and the application goes to animal control, who will inspect the site. The important thing to know is that the rules you must actually meet are not in the municipal code at all. The code says that for bees and beehives the regulations adopted by resolution of the City Council apply, without naming or dating that resolution, so the hive limits and setbacks are in a document you have to ask the city for. Request it before you plan anything, and ask them to confirm which resolution is current, since a resolution can be amended without anything changing in the code.

• It is unlawful to keep or maintain any household pets, bees or other animals not otherwise permitted without first obtaining a permit. 6.04
• Each application must state the number, species and kind of household pets, other animals or bees to be contained, together with any further information the department requires. 6.04
• The Animal Control Officer, Building Official or Police Chief, or their designee, inspects the premises where the bees are to be located and determines whether it meets the conditions of the title and whether issuing a permit would be detrimental. 6.04
• For bees and beehives, regulations adopted by resolution of the City Council apply to the keeping of bees and beehives on private property in the city. 6.04

Beekeeping is allowed with no hive limit, no setback and no permit. The rules are a year-round water supply, a managed flyway and a nuisance standard.

Hive limit: No hive count and no setback are set.

Note: San Mateo is one of the easiest places in California to start, and one of the shortest ordinances you will read. There is no hive limit, no setback and no permit. Three things are asked of you. Keep fresh water on the property all year in an amount that suits the number of hives, with something the bees can stand on to drink, and keep it moving or changed so it does not breed mosquitoes. Manage the flyway so the bees climb over your own land and are eight feet up before they cross a boundary, which you do by where you face the hive and, if the yard is tight, by putting a fence or hedge in front of the entrance. And do not let the bees become a constant annoyance to a neighbour, which is the clause that will be used if something goes wrong. Register with the San Mateo County Agricultural Commissioner as state law requires.

• Every property with beehives must provide an adequate water source at all times of year, and must keep it from becoming a mosquito-breeding site. Adequate means enough fresh water for the number of bees or hives, and a way for the bees to get a footing to drink. 8.28.010(a)
• The beekeeper must manage the direction and angle of the flyway leaving the hive entrance, by siting and orienting the hives and using flyway barriers as needed, so that the flyway stays over the beekeeper own property until the bees are flying eight or more feet above the ground. 8.28.010(b)
• No person shall manage bees under conditions that create a source of constant annoyance or discomfort to any person. 8.28.020

Two beehives on lots under 10,000 square feet and four above, kept in rear yards, with management to prevent swarming and a water source on site.

Hive limit: Two beehives per lot under 10,000 sq ft, four per lot above.

Note: South San Francisco allows two hives on an ordinary lot and four if you have more than 10,000 square feet, all in the rear yard. The management standards are the ones now common across California: keep enough space in the hive to prevent swarming, and provide water on site so your bees are not drinking from a neighbour’s pool or birdbath. Woodland in Yolo County uses the same wording, so the two read alike. Register with the San Mateo County Agricultural Commissioner as state law requires.

• Every person on whose property bees are kept must adhere to good management practices and maintain bees in a condition that will reasonably prevent swarming and aggressive behaviour, and must provide adequate water so bees do not seek it in neighbouring swimming pools, birdbaths, ponds or other community bodies of water. 20.350.007(C)(1)-(2)
• A maximum of two beehives per lot on a parcel of less than 10,000 square feet, or four on a parcel over 10,000 square feet. Beehives are restricted to rear yards. 20.350.007(C)(3)-(5)
• The hive must be sited to ensure an appropriate height of honeybee flight path. 20.350.007(C)(6)

Permitted in Open Space, SCP, RR, and SR Zones.