Irvine Municipal Code Ch. 3-41 Residential Beekeeping

This chapter establishes development standards for residential beekeeping. These standards are intended to protect the public health and safety of the residential home and surrounding neighborhood.

All residential beekeeping activities shall both follow the City's Best Management Practices (BMP) Manual and be ancillary to the primary residential use of the property.

(Ord. No. 22-07, § 3(Exh. A), 5-10-22)

Apiary: Single location where one or more beehives are kept.

Bee: Any stage of the common domestic honey bee (apis mellifera species).

Beekeeping (residential): The raising, breeding, and maintenance of domestic honey bees (apis mellifera species) as an accessory use in residential zones.

Bee box, brood box or honey supers: Boxes used in a Langstroth hive with removable frames that have no top or bottom which allow the beekeeper to expand or condense the hive depending on the strength of the hive.

Bee hive: Structure for the housing of a bee colony.

Beekeeper: A person who keeps honey bees and manages bee hives.

Brood: The eggs, larvae and pupa of the honey bee prior to emerging as an adult bee.

Brood manipulation: Frames of brood that are taken from a healthy colony and donated to a weaker colony to strengthen its health and success for survival.

Colony: A collection of bees with one queen. This can be anywhere from a few hundred bees to many thousand bees.

Colony collapse disorder (CCD): The phenomenon that occurs when the majority of worker bees in a colony disappear and leave behind a queen, plenty of food and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining immature bees and the queen.

Frame: A hive component where bees build their honeycomb.

Hive: An artificial/man-made structure to house a honey bee nest.

Honeycomb: Beeswax cells where honey nectar and brood are stored.

Langstroth hive: A type of hive that is designed to be expandable or contractible with frames that can be removed for inspection.

No kill policy: The preservation, salvation and relocation of honey bees as humanely as possible.

Pollination: The process of collecting pollen from one flower and depositing it on another flower.

Queenright: A hive with a queen is called "queenright", a hive without a queen is called "queenless". Queen bees are vital to a colony because they are the only bees capable of laying fertilized eggs, called workers (female honey bees).

Removable frame: A frame designed to be removed from a hive for inspection purposes.

Requeen: To replace the queen bee in a colony with a new, younger and mated queen, a common practice in beekeeping to prevent bee swarming, increase brood and honey production or reduce hive defensiveness.

Robbing: Bees trying to steal honey from a hive that is not their own and depleting it of its resources.

Smoker: A tool used by a beekeeper to produce smoke to calm the bees.

Swarm: Group of bees in a transitional state leaving their original hive, clustering nearby, and then leaving again to establish a new hive in a new cavity.

Top bar hive: A trapezoidal box with slats of wood which the bees will make comb along. These slats can be pulled out with the comb for inspection.

(Ord. No. 22-07, § 3(Exh. A), 5-10-22)

Residential beekeeping shall be allowed as an accessory use to single-family detached and single-family attached homes with single property ownership (homes on a condominium lot with multiple property ownership are prohibited) only in the following zoning districts:

2.1 Estate Density Residential

2.2 Low Density Residential

2.3 Medium Density Residential

2.4 Medium High Density Residential

2.5 High Density Residential

3.1 Multi-Use

8.1 Trails and Transit Oriented Development

(Ord. No. 22-07, § 3(Exh. A), 5-10-22)

All submittals for a residential beekeeping permit shall comply with all of the following requirements and development standards:

1. Allowable bee species: Apis mellifera (Western honey bee).

2. Minimum Lot Size: 2,400 square feet total.

3. Maximum Number of Beehives: Two Langstroth beehives.

4. Location:

a. Beehive shall be located in the rear yard and behind side yard fencing;

b. Beehive location shall be secured from unauthorized access; and

c. Beehive location shall be screened and not visible from an adjacent street.

5. Beehive setback: Refer to the building setback standards of the subject property's zoning designation.

6. Beehive signage: The permittee shall comply with the following sign requirements:

a. Location: Front yard gate/fence.

b. Sign copy: Text conveying an active beehive (e.g. "Warning: Active Beehive").

c. Size: 12"x24" (two square feet) max. Signs shall be exempt from Division 7 of the Zoning Ordinance.

7. Residential Beekeeping Best Management Practices Manual: The City's BMPs Manual has been established to provide guidance for beekeepers and to provide information that will safeguard neighbors and the public in close proximity to where beehive(s) are kept.

(Ord. No. 22-07, § 3(Exh. A), 5-10-22)