Royal Oak, MI Animal Ordinances: Beekeeping (2026)

Chapter 484's "Keeping of pets" section treats bees the same as dogs, birds, and other animals: the test is whether the animal "causes annoyance in the neighborhood," not whether a beekeeper obtained a permit, since Royal Oak's code has no dedicated apiary chapter or hive-setback rule. Section 484-13 lists four ways an animal, including a bee, can cross into nuisance territory. Subsection A covers barking, howling, or other species-typical noise. Subsection B covers a failure to keep structures, pens, coops, or yards where an animal, fowl, or bee is kept clean, sanitary, and free of rodents, vermin, and objectionable odor, which reaches a beekeeper who lets a hive area become filthy.

Subsection C covers a failure to keep the animal confined to the owner's own premises. Subsection D is bee-specific: it bans keeping any bee that stings or molests any person, which functions as Royal Oak's only substantive beekeeping restriction. Because this sits in the Public Nuisance Ordinance rather than the Zoning or Animals chapters, there is no stated colony-count limit, no minimum lot size, and no required setback from a property line for a hive; the sole legal exposure is that the bees themselves must not sting or molest neighbors or passersby.

That also means Community Development's zoning staff has no beekeeping-specific permit to review, and the only enforcement path is a nuisance complaint investigated as a §484-21 civil infraction.