Margate, FL Animal Ordinances: Beekeeping (2026)

Section 6-59 of the Margate Code, titled Keeping bees, is a citywide prohibition in three parts. Subsection (a) makes it unlawful to keep or harbor any bees in the municipality. Subsection (b) declares any beehive used or occupied by bees a nuisance and makes it unlawful to keep or maintain any such hive in the city. Subsection (c) gives enforcement to the city animal control officer, who issues citations or summons to appear in court.

The section contains no exception, no permit, no lot-size test and no residential-zone carve-out, so a backyard hive is treated the same as any other. Keeping bees in violation is a continuous crime, and each day that bees are kept within the city limits of the City of Margate constitutes a separate and distinct crime. A resident who keeps a hive for a month faces a separate violation for each day.

Because the hive itself is declared a nuisance, Chapter 6 supplies further remedies. Section 6-78 directs the animal control officer to report continuous violations to the city manager, who investigates and attempts to resolve the problem before authorizing legal action by the city legal department to abate the nuisance. Section 6-9 authorizes the city legal department, after direction by the city manager, to file proceedings to abate any violation of the chapter declared a nuisance. Section 6-10 states that the chapter does not conflict with county animal control ordinances and that the city animal control officer's duties are not reduced.

Beekeeping sits next to other livestock limits in the same chapter. Section 6-60 bars chickens, ducks, geese, pigeons, doves, cattle, horses, sheep and goats in the city, with limited exceptions for pet shops, clinics, shelters and up to three indigenous fowl.