Shasta County Beekeeping Regulations

Three hundred feet from any dwelling that is not yours, unless the landowner has given permission. Registration with the commissioner is mandatory, water must be within a hundred and fifty feet or a natural supply within half a mile, and a registered nucleus apiary site is protected by a one mile exclusion zone against other apiaries.

Hive limit: No colony cap anywhere in the chapter. Shasta County controls apiaries by distance, water, registration and site spacing rather than by number.

Note: Shasta County rewrote this chapter completely in 2013 and it reads as commercial apiary law rather than backyard rules, so the questions it answers are about sites and spacing. No apiary may sit closer than three hundred feet to any residence or dwelling other than one you own or possess, unless the apiary is placed with permission from the landowner, and an apiary in breach of that is expressly a nuisance. Water is mandatory and specified two ways: either a natural water supply within half a mile of the apiary, which must not be further away than any artificial supply belonging to someone who has not consented in writing to your apiary being there, or an artificial supply within a hundred and fifty feet. If that artificial supply is not yours, you need written consent to use it and the commissioner can ask to see it. Register the apiary under Food and Agricultural Code § 29040 and post identification under § 29046. Get the landowner's permission in writing before placing an apiary on someone else's property, because the commissioner can ask for evidence of it. The provision most worth knowing is the nucleus apiary rule. A nucleus apiary site must be a mile from any other apiary, unless the nearer apiary is registered to the same person, or the owner of the encroached-upon apiary gives the commissioner written permission, or the site was on the beekeeper's 2013 annual registration. Nucleus sites are registered separately, before 1 January each year, and a site can be transferred to someone else along with the bees and equipment if the transferee tells the commissioner in writing within thirty days. That is real territorial protection for anyone running mating nucs, and it is the only instance of it in this dataset. Two more to plan around: anyone bringing bees into the county must notify the commissioner immediately on arrival and place them at an approved site, and failing to pay the board's fees means your apiaries must leave the county within forty eight hours.

• Keep no apiary closer than three hundred feet to any residence or dwelling other than one you own or possess, unless the apiary is placed with permission from the landowner. An apiary in breach of this is expressly a nuisance. § 6.08.060
• Register the apiary under Food and Agricultural Code § 29040, and comply with the identification sign requirement of § 29046. §§ 6.08.030, 6.08.050
• Water: either a natural supply within half a mile of the apiary, which must not be further from the apiary than any artificial supply belonging to someone who has not consented in writing to the apiary, or an artificial supply within one hundred and fifty feet. If the artificial supply is not yours you need written consent to use it, producible to the commissioner. § 6.08.070
• Get the landowner's permission before placing an apiary on another person's property, and produce written evidence of it to the commissioner on request. § 6.08.040
• A nucleus apiary site must be one mile from any other apiary, unless the nearer apiary is registered to the same person, or the owner of the encroached-upon apiary gives the commissioner written permission, or the site was listed on the beekeeper's 2013 annual apiary registration. § 6.08.120
• Register every nucleus apiary site with the commissioner before 1 January each calendar year, on the commissioner's form, giving your name, mailing address, contact number and the site location. § 6.08.130
• An apiary site may be transferred to another party even inside the one mile zone of a registered nucleus site, provided all bees and equipment on it are sold or transferred too and the transferee gives the commissioner written documentation within thirty days. § 6.08.140
• Notify the commissioner immediately on bringing any shipment of bees, hosts or possible carriers into the county, and place the bees at a site the commissioner approves. Infested or diseased shipments are abated under the Food and Agricultural Code. §§ 6.08.090, 6.08.100
• Do not transport bees on public roads in a way that makes them a public nuisance, and do not leave a vehicle carrying bees stationary long enough to become one. § 6.08.080
• No person may willingly and knowingly keep an apiary of Africanized honey bees. § 6.08.110
• The board of supervisors sets fees for inspection, destruction and registration. Failing to pay is a violation, and apiaries in violation must be removed from the county within forty eight hours. § 6.08.150

A use permit from the planning commission is required, and it cannot be granted unless the parcel is at least five acres. Colonies are capped at two per acre, hives must be registered with the Shasta County agricultural commissioner, fresh water must be available at all times, and the location must be at least two hundred feet from any public road, street or highway, residence or other occupied building that is not the owner's.

Hive limit: Two colonies or nuclei per acre, on a parcel of at least five acres, and only under a use permit from the planning commission. There is no allowance for a smaller parcel.

Note: Anderson treats beekeeping as a rural land use and the acreage is what decides it. The planning commission may allow beekeeping under a use permit, but no permit may issue unless the parcel is at least five acres. Above that, colonies or nuclei are capped at two per acre, so five acres allows ten. There is no provision at all for a smaller parcel, which puts an ordinary town lot outside this section entirely. The other conditions are straightforward. Hives must be registered with the Shasta County agricultural commissioner, which the state requires anyway. An adequate fresh water supply must be available on the property at all times. And the location must be at least two hundred feet from any public road, street or highway, and from any residence or other occupied building other than that of the property owner or the occupant of the property. Note what that means in practice: two hundred feet from your own road frontage as well as from the neighbours. The commission also has to be satisfied that the keeping will not have a detrimental effect on the health, safety, peace, comfort and general welfare of people living or working in the neighbourhood, which is a discretionary finding on top of the numbers. One correction worth flagging, in case you have seen it elsewhere: a fifty foot setback is sometimes attached to Anderson beekeeping, and it does not belong to bees. Fifty feet is what this section requires for swine, sheep, goats, horses and cattle, and thirty five feet for fowl. The bee provision has a single distance, and it is two hundred feet.

• Obtain a use permit from the planning commission before keeping bees. The commission must find that the keeping will not have a detrimental effect on the health, safety, peace, comfort and general welfare of people residing or working in the neighbourhood. § 17.02.135, Bees
• The parcel on which the bees are kept must be at least five acres in size. No permit may issue below that. § 17.02.135, Bees (1)
• The number of colonies or nuclei may not exceed two per acre. § 17.02.135, Bees (2)
• Register the bees with the Shasta County agricultural commissioner. § 17.02.135, Bees (3)
• Keep an adequate fresh water supply available for the bees on the property at all times. § 17.02.135, Bees (4)
• The location must be at least two hundred feet from any public road, street or highway, and from any residence or other occupied building other than that of the property owner or occupant. § 17.02.135, Bees (5)

For noncommercial keeping: a zoning clearance and a signed affidavit, a lot of at least six thousand square feet with a single-family dwelling in any zoning district, and up to three colonies. Hives no taller than six feet, a six foot flight dispersion barrier, county registration, and a water source kept for the colonies' exclusive use on your own property. Commercial keeping is a separate regime with its own setbacks.

Hive limit: Three colonies for noncommercial keeping, on a lot of at least six thousand square feet with a single-family dwelling, in any zoning district. Commercial keeping has no colony cap but has its own permit route and setbacks.

Note: Redding runs two separate regimes and the first thing to settle is which one you are in, because the numbers are completely different. If you are keeping bees noncommercially, you need a lot of at least six thousand square feet with a single-family dwelling on it, and that works in any zoning district. Get a zoning clearance from the development services director and sign an affidavit that you understand and will comply. You may then keep up to three colonies. Each colony goes in a hive, and the combination of brood chambers and supers may not stand more than six feet above ground including whatever stand or rack it sits on, which is worth planning your season around. Maintain flight dispersion barriers at least six feet tall, solid fences, walls or hedges, in good repair. Register the hives with the Shasta County Agricultural Commissioner. And the water rule has a detail people miss: the water source must be for the exclusive use of the colonies and on the same property, and if there is a natural or artificial water source on an abutting residential property your colonies have to sit nearer to your own water than to theirs. No Africanized bees, knowingly. Expect to hand in a site plan. If you are keeping bees commercially the picture changes. On five acres or more in a Residential district, or on any size lot outside a Residential district, it is again a zoning clearance and an affidavit. On less than five acres inside a Residential district you need a use permit under Chapter 18.14. Commercial hives must sit at least one hundred feet from public streets and highways, except while actually transporting them, and at least three hundred feet from any off-site residence or dwelling, and a use permit can reduce either. Commercial apiaries must also stay a mile from any nucleus apiary unless it is your own or the owner of the encroached nucleus site gives the county agricultural commissioner written permission. None of those distances apply to noncommercial keeping.

• Obtain a zoning clearance from the development services director and provide an affidavit certifying that you understand and will comply with this section. § 7.08.010(A)
• An owner or occupant of a lot of at least six thousand square feet with a single-family dwelling, in any zoning district, may keep up to three colonies, each housed in a hive. § 7.08.010(A)(1)
• Hives, counting the combination of brood chambers and supers and any stand or rack, may not exceed six feet above ground level. § 7.08.010(A)(2)
• Register the hives with the Shasta County Agricultural Commissioner under Food and Agricultural Code § 29040. § 7.08.010(A)(3)
• Maintain flight dispersion barriers at least six feet tall, such as solid fences, walls or hedges, in a good state of repair to the satisfaction of the development services director. § 7.08.010(A)(4)
• Maintain an appropriately sized water source for the exclusive use of the colonies on the same property. If there is a natural or artificial water source on an abutting residential property, the colonies must be positioned nearer to your own water source than to that one. § 7.08.010(A)(5)
• Provide a site plan or whatever else the development services director needs to determine compliance. § 7.08.010(A)(6)
• No person may willingly and knowingly keep Africanized bees. § 7.08.010(A)(7), (B)(8)

• On five acres or more in a Residential district, or on a property of any size outside a Residential district, obtain a zoning clearance and provide an affidavit. On less than five acres inside a Residential district, a use permit under Ch. 18.14 of the zoning ordinance is required. § 7.08.010(B)(1), (2)
• Keep hives at least one hundred feet from public streets and highways, except while temporarily transporting them, unless a use permit allows a reduced setback. § 7.08.010(B)(3)
• Keep hives at least three hundred feet from any off-site residence or dwelling, unless a use permit allows a reduced setback. § 7.08.010(B)(4)
• Keep a commercial apiary at least one mile from any nucleus apiary, unless that nucleus apiary is registered to you, or the owner of the encroached-upon nucleus apiary gives the Shasta County Agricultural Commissioner written permission. § 7.08.010(B)(5)

Keeping beehives and selling bee products is a permitted use in two zones, but the rules that actually govern it are Chapter 6.08 of the Shasta County Code, adopted here by reference.

Hive limit: The city sets no hive count of its own. Any limit comes from Shasta County Code Chapter 6.08.

Note: Shasta Lake permits you to keep beehives and to sell what you harvest, which is a clearer permission than most cities give, and it covers selling as well as keeping. But the city has deliberately not written its own standards. Instead it points at Chapter 6.08 of the Shasta County Code and adopts those rules for its own residents. That means the code you need to read is the county's, not the city's, and anyone who reads Shasta Lake's municipal code and stops there will have found the permission without finding a single one of the rules attached to it. Read the county chapter alongside this card, and check the county card on this site too. It also means that if the county amends Chapter 6.08, your obligations change without the city touching its own code, so it is worth confirming you have the current county text rather than a copy you saved a while ago.

• The keeping of beehives and the selling of bee products resulting from the keeping of bees is a permitted use, in accordance with Chapter 6.08 of the Shasta County Code and applicable state laws. 17.26.020, 17.28.020
• Agriculture is defined as the activity of growing and harvesting crops and rearing and managing livestock or bees. 17.02.055