Alameda County Animal Services

[michael fanfa]

Good morning fellow beekeepers,

Michael Fanfa here,

I hope everyone is well today. Bad news for me yesterday. I received a letter from AC Sheriff Office. See three attachments. 

The other attachment is the registration of my hive which obviously has no bearing. Does anyone have any experience in this matter?

It looks like since I only have a .11 acre lot and not a full acre, merely paying the $100 will not let me keep my hive.

I will call them today after they open at 11:30, for now I am hoping for some workable options to converse with them about.

[Rochelle]

Where in alameda county do you live? 

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[Susan Donahue]

Hi Michael

Can you give me a call please.  I just spoke to animal control and have so information about how to proceed 

Sue

510 695-5447

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[Brent Draney]

Is this new legislation or is Alameda now enforcing something that was previously ignored?

Thanks,

Brent

On Sep 9, 2025, at 12:24 PM, Susan Donahue <suedonahu...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[capt.sai...@gmail.com]

Cowell st, atop 164th/Miramar ave

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[capt.sai...@gmail.com]

Old law, seems to only be enforced when bad neighbors bicker.

https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/the-alameda-county-beekeepers-association/B9546E5E-8953-4AD4-B1D6-77BBEA0ABC97%40gmail.com

.

[Robert L Mathews]

On Sep 9, 2025, at 12:43 PM, Brent Draney <brdr...@gmail.com> wrote:

Is this new legislation or is Alameda now enforcing something that was previously ignored?

This is an old law, dating back at least as far as 1980.

As Sue mentioned, a committee of the club has been working for years to try and get this law changed to remove the requirement that hives be on an acre of land. Sue, Phil and others have spent many hours meeting with representatives of the sheriff and supervisors.

The idea is to switch to a "nuisance ordinance" where people are assumed to be allowed to have bees, and the sheriff and animal control only intervene in the event of complaints. The club has also been trying to formally position ourselves as a trusted resource for the sheriff and animal control people to turn to when they get those complaints. (Sue reaching out to them today to say that members will offer Michael an alternate place to put his hives for now will help build that trust, too; thanks Sue.)

As with many things like this, progress has been very slow, but Sue says the hope is that the law can be changed in the next six months.

That unfortunately doesn't help Michael now, of course. The reality is that if one neighbor is complaining, the sheriff is likely to use the existing law of "you simply can't have a hive on less than an acre" as a simple way to stop the complaints.

To those who have offered Michael space to temporarily keep his hives: thank you! That's the spirit of the ACBA. Michael, I wish there was a better solution for you in the meantime. Until the law is changed, it's likely that there isn't much else you can do except move them. This is one of the problems with the current (old) law: it's completely black-and-white and one-sided, with no room for a beekeeper and lots of other neighbors to say "hey, this complaint from one single person is silly".

By the way, the club website has a page about beekeeping laws in various cities in Alameda County if you haven't seen it and want to know what your laws are.

-- 

Robert L Mathews

[Maryly Snow]

YIKES!!

Maryly

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<animal fancier permits.pdf><resident bee rules.pdf><BeekeeperRegistration2025.pdf><resident letter bees.pdf>

[Maryly Snow]

Apiary Registration Fees WILL NOT be Assessed for 2025

No Fee Payments are Due for 2025.

The updated apiary regulations were withdrawn by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), so no apiary registration fees will be assessed at this time. CDFA may resubmit the regulations for review at some point in the future at which time we will update the BeeWhere web site accordingly. For now, all beekeeper registrations will be set to a payment status of WAIVED, and any beekeepers that are already registered will have their payment statuses updated to WAIVED.

Maryly Snow

P.S. it’s been 5 years since I registered my hives with CDFA.

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[Susan Donahue]

thanks for this

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[Mimi Edwards]

Sue, thank you for the work you do behind the scene to make beekeeping more accessible in Alameda County.  Please keep us informed about any progress and let me know if there is anything I can do to help.  
Bee Kind,

Mimi E

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