Revere, MA Animal Ordinances: Beekeeping (2026)

The rules sit in footnote 17 to the Table of Uses at Revere Municipal Code § 17.16.040, part of Revere's urban agriculture provisions. Honey bees may only be kept on residential properties, and ownership, care and control of the colonies is the responsibility of a resident of the dwelling on the lot, not an absentee owner or a tenant elsewhere. A lot may hold no more than two bee colonies, though the board of health can restrict that number or the manner of keeping bees further through its own regulations. A freestanding hive cannot exceed 20 cubic feet in volume, and a beehive or apiary cannot rise higher than 5 feet, a limit that does not apply to the fences or screening structures used to separate the apiary from a neighboring property.

Placement is restricted too: honey bees and beekeeping materials cannot sit in a front yard or in a side yard that abuts a street. Where a hive sits within 10 feet of a public street, park, school ground, walkway or bikeway, the keeper must post a sign, legible from the public way, warning that a beehive is nearby, and a hive on a shared porch, balcony, rooftop or other shared structure needs a sign at the entrance to that area. Enforcement runs through the board of health, and any beekeeper who violates the ordinance or the board's own bee-keeping regulations is subject to the penalties set out in Chapters 1.12 and 1.16 of the Revere Revised Ordinances. The board of health also issues the required bee-keeping license and sets the application requirements for it.