York County, VA Animal Ordinances: Beekeeping (2026)

Sec. 24.1-271(g) permits beekeeping as an accessory use in conjunction with a residential property, subject to a single locational standard: no beehive may sit closer than 50 feet to a dwelling on an adjacent property, or to any school or place of worship. The section also requires the beekeeper to keep a water source for the bees within 50 feet of the hive, a measure meant to keep bees from congregating at neighbors' pools, birdbaths, or spigots instead. Unlike backyard chicken-keeping under Sec. 24.1-271(gg), which is limited to specific zoning districts (RC, RR, R33, R20, R13, and WCI) and tied to separate performance standards in Sec.

24.1-414.1, the beekeeping provision applies wherever residential accessory uses are permitted, with no district list and no separate performance-standards section referenced. The ordinance is also explicit that keeping bees doesn't turn the property into a commercial operation: sharing honey with friends or selling it, on or off the premises, is allowed without triggering a home-occupation review. Because beekeeping sits in Division 7, Accessory Uses, of the zoning chapter, it inherits the general accessory-use rule that most accessory uses can't be established before the principal residence itself is built or under construction, though fences are separately exempt from that timing rule.