St. Joseph County, IN Animal Ordinances: Beekeeping (2026)

14 limits backyard apiaries to the common domestic honey bee, Apis mellifera, and caps each hive at 17 cubic feet in volume. On a fenced lot, hives must sit at least four feet from the property line measured from the hive's center; on an unfenced lot, the same four-foot setback applies from the lot line and the beekeeper must also install a flyaway barrier no more than four feet in front of the hive entrance so bees are forced to fly up and over foot traffic.

No hive may sit closer than ten feet to a public sidewalk regardless of fencing, though colonies on flat roofs are exempt from both the setback and the flyaway barrier requirement. An unfenced lot's hive area still needs a surrounding fence that complies with the zoning ordinance's apiary standards, and every hive must have a fresh water supply on site to keep bees from congregating at neighbors' pools or spigots. 14(D) also folds in state law, requiring hives and equipment to meet Indiana Code apiary standards and the practices recommended by the state's apiary inspectors within the Department of Natural Resources' Division of Entomology and Plant Pathology at Purdue University.

Any apiary, hive or colony that threatens public health or safety, becomes a public nuisance, or is abandoned is declared unlawful outright, and the animal control agency can remove or destroy it.