Baytown, TX Animal Ordinances: Beekeeping (2026)

Sec. 14-8(a) of Baytown's animal chapter lists bees and beehives among the animals restricted citywide, alongside hogs, livestock kept too close to homes, and wild animals. Subsection (a)(6) specifically bars keeping bees or beehives within 300 feet of a private residence the beekeeper has no right to occupy, a church, a school, a day care, a nursing home, a hospital, a park, or any public place. Because the measurement runs from any of those uses rather than from a zoning line, a beekeeper on an ordinary residential lot in a built-up Baytown neighborhood will rarely clear 300 feet from every neighboring house, church, or school in every direction, which functions as a near-total practical bar on backyard hives outside larger or more isolated lots.

The chapter's general exceptions for governmental education exhibits, zoological parks, licensed circuses, and rehabilitation of injured wild animals under Sec. 14-8(c) do not extend to beehives; no separate beekeeping permit or registration process exists in the chapter to override the 300-foot buffer.