Stanislaus County Beekeeping Regulations

Up to four permanent standard beehives are permitted in any district. Five or more makes the use small livestock farming.

Hive limit: Four permanent standard beehives may be kept in any district without the use becoming small livestock farming.

Note: Stanislaus County gives you the clearest threshold in California: keep four permanent standard beehives or fewer and you are permitted in any zoning district with nothing further required. Go to five and the use becomes small livestock farming, which is a different question entirely. Register with the county agricultural commissioner either way, and note that if you are a hobbyist, meaning you are not in the business and hold nine or fewer colonies, the board of supervisors waives the annual fee. Two thresholds is confusing on purpose or by accident: nine colonies for the fee, four hives for the zoning. If your land adjoins brush or forest, § 16.55.200 treats an apiary as a structure needing a 30 foot cleared fire break around it.

• Small livestock farming means keeping more than a combined total of twelve hens, turkeys, pigeons, similar fowl, rabbits or similar animals, or more than four permanent standard beehives. Keeping animals in quantities less than that is permitted in any district. 21.12.530
• Food and Agricultural Code section 29044 requires the secretary of food and agriculture to adopt registration fees for beekeepers, apiary operators, apiary owners and other persons in possession of an apiary, payable when registering bees with the agricultural commissioner. The board of supervisors may waive the fee for a hobbyist, meaning someone not in the business of beekeeping who possesses nine or fewer bee colonies. 9.45.010
• Any beekeeper, apiary operator, apiary owner or person who is a hobbyist is exempt from annual registration fees as set out in Food and Agricultural Code section 29044. 9.45.030
• Anyone owning, leasing, controlling, operating or maintaining an apiary, among other structures, on or adjoining mountainous, forest or brush covered land must at all times maintain an effective fire break by clearing flammable vegetation and combustible material for at least 30 feet on each side. 16.55.200
• An agricultural operation includes apiculture, alongside viticulture, horticulture and timber, together with the commercial practices incident to it. 9.32.010

Apiaries are a principal permitted use in the Residential Agricultural zone, listed at item E with no conditions attached to them. The zone sets no hive count, no setback and no permit for beekeeping.

Hive limit: None. Apiaries are simply a principal permitted use in the Residential Agricultural zone, which is a complete answer rather than a gap.

Note: In the Residential Agricultural zone, apiaries are a principal permitted use. § 18.07.020 lists the principal uses of the zone and apiaries are item E, standing on their own with no conditions, no lot size minimum and no setback attached to them. That is a complete answer: you may keep bees in that zone without a permit from the city. One thing to be careful about if you read the section yourself. Item C, two items above, deals with keeping cattle, cows, steers, goats, sheep and fowl, and it comes with real conditions: a one acre minimum lot size, no animal or pen within twenty feet of a lot line abutting a street, thirty five feet of any other lot line, or fifty feet of any dwelling. Those numbers govern the animals in item C. They are not apiary setbacks and they do not apply to your hives. It is an easy mistake to make because they sit close together on the page. What this card cannot tell you is whether your parcel is in the Residential Agricultural zone at all, since that is the only zone read here. If it is not, ask the planning department how apiaries are treated in yours. California still requires apiary registration with the Stanislaus County agricultural commissioner.

• Apiaries are a principal permitted use in the Residential Agricultural zone, with no conditions attached. § 18.07.020(E)
• The one acre minimum and the 20, 35 and 50 foot distances in the same section apply to the cattle, goats, sheep and fowl of item C. They are not apiary requirements. § 18.07.020(C)
• Only the Residential Agricultural zone was read. How apiaries are treated in other Ceres zones has not been established. Title 18

Hughson sets no beekeeping standards. An apiary near brush land needs a 30 foot cleared fire break, and apiculture counts as an agricultural operation.

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

Note: Hughson sets no hive count, setback or permit. Bees appear in two places only. The fire code treats an apiary as a structure, so if your land is on or next to brush or forest you must keep 30 feet around it cleared of flammable growth. And the right-to-farm provisions count apiculture as an agricultural operation, which matters if a neighbour later complains about an established apiary. Register with the Stanislaus County Agricultural Commissioner, and read the county card as well as this one, since the county sets a four-hive threshold that is worth knowing.

• Anyone owning, leasing or controlling an apiary, among other structures, on or adjoining forest or brush covered land must maintain an effective fire break by clearing flammable vegetation for at least 30 feet on each side. Fire code
• An agricultural operation includes apiculture together with viticulture, horticulture and timber, and the commercial practices incident to it. Right to farm

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 Stanislaus 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.

Oakdale sets no beekeeping standards. Apiculture is named within the definition of an agricultural operation.

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

Note: Oakdale has no beekeeping chapter and sets no hive count, setback or permit. Bees appear only inside the definition of an agricultural operation, which names apiculture alongside viticulture and horticulture. That classification matters mainly for right-to-farm protection rather than for permission, so check which zoning district your parcel sits in, register with the Stanislaus County Agricultural Commissioner, and read the county card, which sets a four-hive threshold.

• An agricultural operation includes the cultivation and tillage of the soil, dairying, and the production, cultivation, growing, harvesting and processing of any agricultural commodity including viticulture, horticulture, timber or apiculture, together with the commercial practices incident to it. Definitions

Patterson 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: Patterson sets no hive count, setback or permit. Its only mention of bees is in the right-to-farm chapter, which names apiculture as an agricultural operation and exists to warn people buying near farmland what to expect. That protects an established apiary from later nuisance complaints rather than granting permission, so confirm your zoning with the city, register with the Stanislaus County Agricultural Commissioner, and read the county card for the four-hive threshold.

• An agricultural operation includes viticulture, horticulture, timber or apiculture, the raising of livestock, fish or poultry, and the commercial agricultural practices incident to those operations. Right to Farm definitions
• The chapter promotes a good neighbour policy by advising purchasers and users of property near agricultural operations of the inconveniences associated with them. Right to Farm purpose

No beekeeping provisions found in this code by a 2026 search.

Note: A 2026 search of this jurisdiction's full American Legal 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.

Keeping bees is prohibited in Turlock except in conjunction with an existing agricultural operation, and unlawful keeping is a public nuisance.

Hive limit: None. Bees are not permitted outside an existing agricultural operation.

Note: Turlock prohibits keeping bees in the city, with one exception: hives kept in conjunction with an existing agricultural operation. Read that carefully, because it is narrower than land zoned for agriculture. The hives have to belong to a working agricultural operation, so a hobbyist on a large lot has no route through it, and unlawful keeping is treated as a public nuisance that Animal Services can abate rather than a matter for the planning counter. If you do run an agricultural operation in Turlock, the city’s right-to-farm chapter names apiculture as one, and the two provisions are meant to be read together.

• No person shall keep or maintain within the city any stand of bees, except in conjunction with an existing agricultural operation. 6-1-106
• Any person keeping or maintaining bees in the city unlawfully is guilty of keeping and maintaining a public nuisance, which Animal Services and Control staff may abate. 6-1-107
• An agricultural operation includes viticulture, horticulture, timber or apiculture, the raising of livestock, fur bearing animals, fish or poultry, and the commercial practices incident to those operations. It is city policy to protect and encourage the development and improvement of its agricultural operations. Protection of Agricultural Operations

More than four permanent standard beehives makes the use small livestock farming. Fewer than that is not classified as farming.

Hive limit: Four permanent standard beehives is the threshold at which the use becomes small livestock farming.

Note: Waterford uses the same four-hive threshold as Stanislaus County: keep more than four permanent standard beehives and the use is classified as small livestock farming, which is a different planning question from keeping a few hives. Below that line the classification does not bite. The code sets no setback or permit for hives themselves, so confirm with the city which districts allow small livestock farming if you plan to go past four, and register with the county agricultural commissioner either way.

• Small livestock farming includes the keeping of more than four permanent standard beehives, among other thresholds. The term does not include hog farming, dairying, or the raising or keeping for commercial purposes of horses, mules or similar livestock. Use classifications