Chula Vista, CA Animal Ordinances: Beekeeping (2026)

100 makes it unlawful for any owner or occupant to allow or maintain stands or hives of bees on premises located within 600 feet of any building used for residential purposes in the City. Because most Chula Vista residential parcels sit well within 600 feet of another home, the practical effect is a near-citywide restriction on hobbyist backyard beekeeping rather than a permit-based system with a numeric hive cap. The section carves out three exceptions: hives kept in a schoolhouse or museum for study or observation; hives kept within a physician's office or laboratory for medical research, treatment, or scientific purposes; and hives on residential property kept for scientific research or study purposes, provided they are maintained so as to prevent a nuisance or annoyance to surrounding property owners.

That third exception is the only route by which a residential keeper inside the 600-foot buffer could lawfully maintain hives, and it turns on avoiding nuisance conditions such as swarming, stinging incidents, or blocked flight paths that disturb neighbors. 04, Keeping Pets, Livestock, Birds and Bees, alongside the City's other animal-density rules, and enforcement runs through the same City Manager-designee animal-regulation apparatus that oversees fowl, rabbit, and livestock keeping under the rest of the chapter.