Westminster, CA Animal Ordinances: Beekeeping (2026)

Bees fall under the same domestic-animal permitting scheme that covers livestock, fowl, and other regulated animals. Section 6.12.020(A) makes it unlawful to keep bees on any public or private property in the city without a permit, and the standard household-pet exceptions listed elsewhere in that section (dogs, cats, birds) do not extend to bees. To actually keep a hive, a resident applies to Animal Control under § 6.12.060, paying the filing fee set by council resolution under § 6.12.070.

Section 6.12.080(C) supplies the substantive test Animal Control must apply before approving that application: it may not issue a beekeeping permit unless it finds the use will not be detrimental to the health, safety and welfare of the neighborhood, and unless the beehives will be housed not less than two hundred feet from any dwelling unit other than the beekeeper's own home. Both findings are mandatory, so a lot too small to clear the 200-foot separation from a neighboring house cannot support an approved hive regardless of how the bees are managed.

If Animal Control denies the application, § 6.12.090 gives the applicant ten days to request a hearing officer review, and a denied beekeeper may reapply after one year once the underlying problem, most often the distance to a neighboring dwelling, is corrected. The chapter treats an unpermitted hive the same as any other unpermitted animal: it is subject to citation and abatement as a nuisance under § 6.16.020.