Leon County, FL Animal Ordinances: Beekeeping (2026)

Leon County does not set its own numeric beekeeping standards; instead, Sec. 816 permits honeybee colonies specifically on community gardens and urban farms and points beekeepers straight to state law. On a community garden, colonies of honey bees may be kept consistent with the regulations set forth in the Florida Administrative Code and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services guidelines and best management practices for beekeeping on non-agricultural lands, which the county's own text says covers setbacks, fencing, water sources, and colony-size limits tied to the size of the property.

The identical standard applies to urban farms under subsection (f)(4)b. In both cases, the code makes state registration mandatory: all beekeepers with honey bee colonies must register with the state. Notably, the county's home-garden provision, which is what covers an ordinary backyard on a residential lot, lists only hens and ducks as permitted urban agriculture animals; bees are not named among the home-garden animals at all, meaning a straightforward backyard hive on a residential lot sits outside this section's specific standards and depends on the state's general apiary registration and best-management-practice rules rather than a Leon County numeric limit.

Anyone keeping bees on a formal community garden or urban farm site, by contrast, has to show state registration and compliance with the state's siting guidance as part of the county's permit review for that garden or farm.