Montgomery County, VA Animal Ordinances: Beekeeping (2026)

Montgomery County Code § 10-41 permits residential beekeeping, as defined in § 10-61, in the Residential (R-1), (R-2), (R-3), Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) and Planned Unit Development-Residential (PUD-RES) districts, subject to specific numeric limits. The lot must be at least one-half acre. Density is capped at two hives per half acre, plus an equal number of nucleus hives, so a full one-acre residential lot supports four production hives and four nucs under the same ratio. Every hive must sit in the rear yard only, and must be set back at least 25 feet from the side and rear property lines; the ordinance gives beekeepers no front- or side-yard placement option.

The section also requires a water source: "every person owning, possessing, or keeping any beehive shall maintain, within fifty (50) feet of each beehive, an adequate, accessible, and useable supply of water for the bees," a standard aimed at keeping bees away from neighbors' pools and birdbaths. Keeping is limited to the household's personal use and enjoyment; the section explicitly bars onsite commercial uses such as selling honey, beeswax or bees, which distinguishes residential beekeeping from the county's separate farm-enterprise and intensive-agriculture provisions that allow commercial operations on larger acreage.

Residential beekeeping must also comply with chapter 7, article III of the County Code, the county's general animal provisions, and follows the same zoning permit track used for residential chicken keeping under the adjoining subsection of § 10-41.