This came up in our city discussions a while back as we were reviewing our allowable uses in our zones.  The mayor at the time was a bee keeper and was the Bee Director for our county.  He strongly advocated against any and all regulations for bees, given their important roles in our ecosystem and the many threats currently facing bees.  After further discussion, the council settled on allowing personal use beehives (up to 5 total beehives) as permitted uses in all zones with no regulations.  (No setbacks, no conditional use permit, no location requirements or spacing requirements, no permit required, etc.)  Any commercial application (6 or more total beehives) would be allowed under a conditional use permit in areas that had more open space.  Some at the time were a little nervous about not regulating beehives, but after nearly 10 years, I haven’t taken a single complaint about any beehives.  We’ve never had any issues whatsoever that I’m aware of.  Those with beehives don’t normally want anyone disturbing their bees and they generally are good at keeping them out of the way of high foot traffic areas that might disturb the bees or otherwise cause problems with the public.  I was also hesitant at first, but based on our experience after 10 years I have no problem with recommending the same approach to any other community considering their alternatives.