Somerville, MA Animal Ordinances: Beekeeping (2026)

Somerville's Board of Health beekeeping policy bars anyone from keeping honey bees without a permit, capped at two colonies per lot; beekeepers who already had hives when the ordinance passed were grandfathered in but still must pay the renewal fee. Applicants must notify abutters of the request to keep bees, and beekeepers must keep their apiaries from becoming a public nuisance. Each hive is limited to five feet in height and twenty cubic feet. Where a hive sits closer than twenty feet to a principal building on an abutting lot, or on a side yard abutting a street, the beekeeper must install a flyway barrier at least six feet tall, made of wall, fence, dense vegetation or a combination, running at least twenty-five feet and meeting the zoning code.

00, including notifying the Commonwealth of new hives within 48 hours, marking every hive with the owner's name, and covering bees moved between sunrise and sunset with wire mesh, screen, or net. Anyone who sells honey from their hives must also follow the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Food Protection Program rules for unprocessed honey, and every beekeeper must watch the Board of Health's video on keeping bees in Somerville before getting a permit.