Redwood City, CA Animal Ordinances: Beekeeping (2026)

Redwood City regulates backyard beekeeping through three short, specific sections. 7 sets the placement rule: a bee hive must sit at least 25 feet from any dwelling on an adjacent property, a straightforward setback measured from the neighboring house rather than the property line itself. 8 layers on quantity and maintenance conditions: every hive must have an adequate, constant on-site water supply, and any parcel of 3,000 square feet or less is limited to no more than two bee hives total, a cap clearly aimed at the smaller lots common in Redwood City's residential neighborhoods.

9 supplies the enforcement mechanism by declaring a public nuisance whenever bees are not kept in accordance with the article, meaning noncompliant hives can be pursued the same way as any other declared nuisance under the Municipal Code, through code enforcement and the remedies available to correct the violation citywide. All three sections were carried forward from Ordinance No. 581 and amended by Ordinance No. 9 from a bee definition section into the current nuisance-declaration provision, making the current text more concrete and easier to enforce than the ordinance it replaced.