Indian River County, FL Animal Ordinances: Beekeeping (2026)

Keeping honey bees is legal across Indian River County and treated as agriculture. The state preempts local regulation: section 586.10 gives the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services exclusive authority to regulate, inspect, and permit managed honeybee colonies and to set rules on where registered colonies may be placed, superseding any county ordinance. Every beekeeper must register colonies annually with FDACS and submit to state apiary inspection for disease and Africanized bees, which are established across South Florida. Because placement of registered, inspected colonies is a state matter, the county cannot ban hives, though Vero Beach, Sebastian, and deed-restricted communities may still restrict them by private covenant.