Whatcom County, WA Animal Ordinances: Beekeeping (2026)

021(1) requires every person owning one or more hives with bees, and any broker renting hives, to register with the director of the Washington State Department of Agriculture by April 1st of each year, and the same duty reaches out-of-state apiarists who operate hives inside Washington. The registration application under subsection (2) must include the apiarist's or broker's name, address and phone number, the number of colonies to be owned, brokered or operated in the state that year, a registration fee set by rule with advice from the apiary advisory committee, and any other information the department requires by rule.

Once registered, subsection (3) entitles the apiarist or broker to an apiarist identification number from the department. 053) lists beekeeping, alongside animal husbandry, horticulture, viticulture, floriculture and silviculture, as a permitted use in the Urban Residential district, and the same permitted-use language repeats across the county's other residential and rural zoning chapters (Urban Residential Medium Density, Residential Rural, Rural, Agriculture and Rural Residential-Island), so a resident does not need a conditional use permit or variance to keep hives on a qualifying lot. The county has not layered its own hive-count, setback or flyway-barrier ordinance on top of the state registration duty.