Durham, NC Animal Ordinances: Beekeeping (2026)

The joint City-County UDO defines "Apiculture" simply as "the maintenance of honey bee colonies" (Article 17, Definitions), and Sec. 1, Use Table lists Apiculture as a "P" (permitted by right) use in the RR, RS, RS-M, RU and RU-M residential districts, as well as in the RC, nonresidential and planned-development columns. That P designation carries no cross-reference to Sec. 3, Limited Use Standards, meaning no hive-count cap, setback, or registration is written into the use table entry itself. The operative scoping language sits in Sec.

A, Agricultural Use Standards: general agricultural uses in the City, and in the County where not exempted by state statute, are allowed under the use table, but "In the RS-20 District, all agricultural uses shall be allowed. " In other words, a Durham homeowner in a standard RS district (not RS-20) cannot keep livestock or run row crops, but can keep bee colonies as of right, alongside forestry and crop production. Sec. A also layers in site-management duties that apply to apiculture as an agricultural use: sites must be "designed and maintained to prevent fertilizer, compost, soils, and any other materials from spilling and/or draining onto adjacent property, streams, and public or private stormwater collection systems," and on-site sales of apiary products as an accessory use require no additional parking when no permanent sales structure is built.

Because apiculture carries a plain "P" rather than an "L" in the use table, it is not subject to the numeric intensity or design standards that attach to "L"-coded uses under Article 6 or Article 7.