Hammond, IN Animal Ordinances: Beekeeping (2026)

036, BEES, opens by declaring the keeping of bees within the city's residential districts a public nuisance unless a list of conditions is met. Subsection (A) caps a residential beekeeper at 2 colonies of domestic honey bees (Apis Mellifera), requires queens purchased from licensed breeders or beekeepers, and requires that an aggressive colony be re-queened immediately. Subsection (B) requires the colonies be placed in a stable, appropriate apiary that is kept in sound, usable condition, including hive bodies, supers, frames, top and bottom boards and extractors.

Subsection (C) is the enclosure rule: the property where the colonies live must be fenced to a height of not less than 4 feet, the apiary must sit entirely within the owner's property and not near an adjoining property line, and it must have sufficient wind screening. Subsection (D) requires the colony be maintained so it does not create unhealthy conditions or interfere with the normal use and enjoyment of public property or the property of others, and subsection (E) requires a warning sign be posted on the property disclosing the apiary's presence.

Subsection (F) carves out an exception letting members of the Beekeepers Association enter the city to remove hives or swarms even though the general public cannot exceed the 2-colony limit. The ordinance dates to Ordinance 7431, passed November 25, 1991, and was amended by Ordinance 9376 in 2017, showing the city has revisited its beekeeping standard within the last decade rather than leaving it untouched since 1991.