Siskiyou County Beekeeping Regulations

One hundred feet from the travelled portion of a public road and six hundred feet from any dwelling that is not yours, the second waivable by the occupant in writing. Apiaries must also sit a mile and a half from any other apiary unless you own both or the other beekeeper agrees in writing. Registration with the county costs ten dollars a year plus twenty dollars per apiary site.

Hive limit: No colony cap. Siskiyou controls apiaries by distance, by spacing between operators and through the commissioner's registry rather than by number.

Note: The provision to work out first is not a setback, it is the spacing between apiaries. No apiary may sit within a mile and a half in any direction of another apiary, and the exceptions are narrow: sites you own yourself, beekeepers who have agreed in writing and told the Agriculture Commissioner, and certain sites at least a mile apart that were registered through the 2016 season and have stayed current. On open ground that rule decides your options long before any dwelling does. Then the distances. At least one hundred feet from the exterior line of the travelled portion of a public road, and the commissioner can still call a location a nuisance for cause even beyond that. At least six hundred feet from any house or building used as a dwelling other than one you own or possess, and that one falls away with the written consent of the occupant, which is worth asking for. Registration is the county's own on top of the state requirement: ten dollars a year payable by 1 January, plus an apiary site fee of twenty dollars for every site inside the county. Moving bees in needs five days' notice to the Commissioner before you arrive, with your name, address and telephone number and the proposed location of each colony, and the Commissioner can approve or refuse the location you propose. Do not transport hives between sunrise and sunset unless the bees are confined to the vehicle by screens, nets or something equally effective. Keeping an apiary of Africanized honey bees is prohibited and is treated as a public nuisance to be abated at once. Complaints about aggressive bees go to the Commissioner, who decides whether they amount to a nuisance.

• No apiary may sit closer than one and a half miles in any direction to another apiary, except sites kept by the same owner, beekeepers who have agreed in writing and informed the Agriculture Commissioner, and certain sites at least a mile apart registered through the 2016 season and kept current. § 4-6.15
• Keep no apiary within one hundred feet of the exterior line of the travelled portion of a public road, and no closer to any road than would be a nuisance or hazard to people using it. The Commissioner may evaluate a location as a nuisance for cause. § 4-6.09
• Keep no apiary closer than six hundred feet to any house or building used as a dwelling other than one you own or possess, without the written consent of that occupant. § 4-6.10
• Register the apiary with the Siskiyou County Department of Agriculture under Food and Agricultural Code § 29040 et seq. The registration fee is ten dollars, payable by 1 January each year, and an apiary site fee of twenty dollars per site is due on the same date. § 4-6.18
• Notify the Commissioner five days before moving or relocating a colony into the county, giving the operator's name, address and telephone number and the proposed location of each colony. The Commissioner may approve or deny the proposed locations. § 4-6.16
• Do not transport hives of bees between sunrise and sunset unless the bees are confined to the vehicle by screens, nets or other equally effective means. § 4-6.12
• No person may willingly and knowingly keep an apiary of Africanized honey bees. A violation may be deemed a public nuisance and abated by the Commissioner forthwith. § 4-6.20
• Complaints of aggressive bees are evaluated by the Commissioner for whether they constitute a public nuisance. § 4-6.21
• A hobbyist apiary is defined as nine or fewer colonies. Words not defined in the chapter take their meaning from Division 13 of the state Food and Agriculture Code. § 4-6.01

Beehives are prohibited within the city limits. The section bans swarms as well as hives.

Hive limit: Not applicable. Beehives are prohibited citywide.

Note: Dorris does not allow beehives. The code says plainly that it is unlawful to have beehives within the city limits, and the chapter index lists the same thing, so there is no ambiguity and no permit to apply for. If you want to keep bees near Dorris you will need land outside the city, and you should read the Siskiyou County card, which is the rule that would then govern you. One oddity worth knowing if a swarm turns up uninvited: the section bans swarms as well as hives, which read literally would put you in breach for something you did not do and cannot prevent. If that happens, call the city rather than assuming you are in trouble, and ask a local beekeeper to collect it. Note also that the definition of beehive is broad, covering any box that bees have taken possession of, so an empty stack of equipment stored outdoors could be caught if a swarm moves into it. Register with the Siskiyou County Agricultural Commissioner for any hives you keep outside the city, as state law requires.

• It is unlawful to have beehives and swarms within the city limits. 6.08.030
• A bee means a honey-producing insect of the species apis mellifica, including adults, eggs, larvae, pupae and other immature stages. A beehive means any receptacle or container made for the use of bees, or a box or similar container of which bees have taken possession. 6.04.010(C)-(D)
• The zoning definition of Small acreage agriculture covers crop and tree farming and the raising of livestock, but expressly does not involve apiaries, so an apiary is carved out of the agricultural use class as well. 18.08.2120

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.

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 Siskiyou 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.

No municipal code found.

Hive limit: A maximum of three hives on a property less than one acre and a maximum of six hives on a property between one and two acres.

• Compliance with this section shall not be a defense to a proceeding alleging that a given colony constitutes a nuisance or violates applicable ordinances, but such compliance may be offered as evidence of the beekeeper's compliance with acceptable standards of practice among beekeepers within the town. Sec. 6.08.050.
• The flyway barrier must be up to six feet and may consist of a wall, fence, dense vegetation or a combination thereof, such that the bees will fly over rather than through the material to reach the colony. Sec. 6.08.050.
• If the beekeeper serves the community by removing swarms of honeybees from locations where they are not desired, the beekeeper shall be permitted to temporarily hive the swarm on their property for up to 30 days from the date acquired, at which time the hive limit requirements of this section shall apply. Sec. 6.08.050.

Three hives under an acre, six to two acres, then three more per acre. Hives out of the front yard, 10 ft from a dwelling, behind a flyway barrier unless the neighbouring lot is undeveloped, agricultural or industrial.

Hive limit: Three hives under one acre, six from one to two acres, and three more for every acre above two.

Note: Read in full in 2026. Both published figures are confirmed, but the card described a complete 2015 ordinance as "fly away barrier required in most cases", and its hive tier was wrong. There is no nine-hive step: three hives under an acre, six between one and two, and then three MORE for every acre above two, with no stated ceiling, so five acres allows fifteen. The provision most worth knowing is the barrier exemption, which the card omitted entirely: no flyway barrier is needed where the adjoining lot is undeveloped or zoned agricultural or industrial. Montague also does something almost no other city does: if you remove an unwanted swarm as a service to the community, you may keep it on your property for 30 days ABOVE your hive limit. Note that complying with the section is not a defence to a nuisance complaint, only evidence of good practice. One oddity in the code itself: § 6.04.010 defines "Camellia" as a honey-producing insect of the species apis mellifica, which is clearly meant to read "Bee".

• A maximum of three hives on a property under one acre, six on a property between one and two acres, and an additional three hives per acre for properties over two acres. 6.04.170(B)(1)-(3)
• Bees must be kept in hives with removable frames or combs, maintained in sound and usable condition. Hives may not be placed in a front yard, and a beehive must be located 10 feet from a dwelling. 6.04.170(B)(4), (5)
• A flyway barrier of up to six feet, made of wall, fence, dense vegetation or a combination, must make the bees fly over rather than through it. No barrier is required where the adjoining lot is undeveloped, or is zoned agricultural or industrial. 6.04.170(B)(6), (7)
• A beekeeper who removes a swarm from somewhere it is not wanted may temporarily hive it on their own property for up to 30 days from the date acquired, above the normal hive limit. After 30 days the limits apply again. 6.04.170(C)(1)
• Honey and other products the bees generate on site may be sold from the property under the applicable business licence or home occupation rules, but no outdoor sales are permitted. 6.04.170(B)(8)
• A city official may inspect any apiary once a year between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. with prior notice, and more often without notice on a complaint. A notice of violation may be appealed to the city council within 10 days, and the council decides within 30 days; that decision is final. 6.04.170(D), (E)
• Complying with this section is not a defence against a claim that a colony is a nuisance, though it may be offered as evidence of meeting accepted local beekeeping standards. The section does not displace other nuisance remedies. 6.04.170(A)(2), (F)

No local beekeeping rule found in the municipal code. State registration with the county agricultural commissioner still applies.

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

Note: Mount Shasta was searched against its live code in 2026 across the full range of beekeeping vocabulary, and nothing came back, so this card no longer rests on an assumption. Three caveats are still worth carrying, each earned from a real California code this year. A code can regulate bees without ever 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, with "bee culture" the most obscure term found so far. And obligations can sit outside the animals and zoning titles altogether, including apiary provisions buried in wildland-urban interface fire codes, which is how six other California jurisdictions turned out to have exactly one beekeeping duty. Given where Mount Shasta sits, the fire code is the one worth asking about specifically. Check Siskiyou 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.

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.

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.