Arapahoe County, CO Animal Ordinances: Beekeeping (2026)

I extends bee-keeping to residential single-family detached properties in any zone district, including PUD zoning that allows single-family uses, while noting HOA covenants and guidelines may impose tighter limits of their own. 2 scale hive count to lot area: a lot under 20,000 square feet may keep two hive boxes, a lot from 20,000 square feet up to one acre may keep four, and a lot of one acre or more may keep eight, except A-E, A-1, RR-A and RR-B zoned lots, which carry no hive-box limit at all, reflecting the county's more permissive stance in its agricultural and rural-residential districts.

Each hive box is capped at six feet in height above ground level and ten cubic feet in volume. Placement rules require every hive to sit behind the front building line of the principal structure and at least ten feet from the side and rear property lines, with the entrance oriented away from neighboring yards and the public right-of-way. A flyway barrier is required whenever a hive sits closer than twenty-five feet to any property line, redirecting bee flight paths upward and away from adjoining land; hives at least twenty-five feet from every property line need no flyway.

The section separately bars any commercial sale of honey produced on the property, keeping backyard apiaries a personal-use activity rather than a home business. Because these standards sit in the Permitted Use Table chapter, keeping bees outside these limits is treated as a zoning use violation handled through the county's Code Compliance function rather than as an Animal Services matter.