Beekeeping is lawful throughout St. Johns County, and Florida preempts local bans. Section 586.10 hands the state exclusive authority to regulate and permit managed honeybee colonies and to set placement rules, overriding any county ordinance. Colonies must be registered and inspected by FDACS.
Keeping honey bees is legal across St. Johns County and treated as agriculture under Florida law, a natural fit for the county's farmland and coastal gardens. The state preempts local regulation: section 586.10 gives the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services exclusive authority to regulate, inspect, and permit managed honeybee colonies and to adopt rules on where registered colonies may be placed, superseding any related county or municipal ordinance. Every beekeeper must register colonies annually with FDACS and submit to state apiary inspection for disease and Africanized bees; the department, not St. Johns County, sets best-management practices and minimum-lot standards.
Keeping unregistered colonies violates state apiary law and is enforced by FDACS, which can order colonies destroyed. A St. Johns County ordinance purporting to ban or relocate registered, inspected colonies is preempted and unenforceable under section 586.10.
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