Olympia, WA Animal Ordinances: Beekeeping (2026)

Olympia handles beekeeping inside its agriculture subsection, OMC § 18.04.060(KK), rather than as a separate chapter. Paragraph (KK)(5) allows beekeeping outright as an agricultural use, which means no conditional use hearing, when the keeper is registered with the State Department of Agriculture according to provisions of RCW 15.60.021. The code defines bees as adult insects, eggs, larvae, pupae, or other immature stages of the species Apis mellifera.

The hive count is capped on small lots. A maximum of four hives, each with only one swarm, are allowed on lots of less than ten thousand square feet. The paragraph prints no hive count for larger lots, so the cap speaks to the small residential lot.

Placement is the second rule. Hives may not be located within 25 feet of any lot line. That distance can be reduced to 10 feet if strategies are employed to require bees to gain elevation before crossing the property line. The code names two ways: elevation changes of eight feet or more above the grade immediately adjacent to the grade of the lot on which the hives are located, or a solid fence or hedge six feet high parallel to any lot line within 25 feet of a hive and extending at least twenty feet beyond the hive in both directions.

General keeping rules in subsection KK apply as well. Suitable sanitary enclosures, such as coops, barns, and hives, must be provided and designed to protect animals on all sides from weather and predators and to prevent rodents. Fences must meet OMC Chapter 18.40, and agricultural uses must follow the best management practices in the City of Olympia Drainage Design and Erosion Control Manual. Subsection KK also lists nuisance conditions for animal keeping, including excessive noise and other issues that are significantly disruptive to the neighborhood.