Valencia County, NM Animal Ordinances: Beekeeping (2026)

Valencia County Code § 92.03(B) excludes 'agricultural uses, agricultural facilities, agricultural operations, and agricultural activities as defined herein, which uses do not cause a health or safety hazard' from the entire public nuisance chapter. Section 92.04's definition of AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES lists 'the production and keeping of honey bees, production of honey bee products and honey bee processing facilities' as one of the protected uses, so an apiary in unincorporated Valencia County sits inside the exemption from the start. A beekeeper does not need a county nuisance permit, hearing or variance to keep hives on residential, rural residential or agricultural land outside Los Lunas, Belen, Bosque Farms, Peralta and Rio Communities, each of which enforces its own code within its limits.

The protection is conditional, not absolute: § 92.20 states that to constitute a nuisance, an activity 'must meet the general nuisance definition set forth in § 92.04, and violate one of the enumerated nuisances, and not be excluded in § 92.03,' so once an apiary causes a genuine health or safety hazard, such as documented, repeated stinging incidents, the agricultural exclusion falls away and the hive can be treated as any other nuisance. § 92.02(B) confirms the chapter is 'supplementary and complementary to state law,' so a hazardous apiary can still be pursued under state law even while excluded here.

A beekeeper cited despite the exclusion can raise § 92.03(B) directly as a defense before Code Enforcement or at a nuisance hearing under the County Manager's office.