Subject: Re: Beekeeping and Municipal Bylaws

From: Kevin Ormerod <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 7 Aug 1995 19:00:53 GMT

Peter,

As a backyard beekeeper, myself, I was concerned
about being a good neighbor.  I obtained a copy
of "Texas Model Ordinance For Urban Beekeeping"
>from  Brushy Mountain Bee Farm (1-800-233-7929).
The copy was only $1.50 and it outlined the basis
for a town ordanance that I think most could live with.

Kevin O.

PS.  From my own experience.   Originally my wife
        said "No way.  No bees in my backyard".  Well
        after about a year now she has completely 
        changed her mind.  I have two hives about 30'
        from the back of my house.  Surrounding these
        two hives I placed some lattice about 5 feet
        high.  As a previous responder mentioned -- once
        the bees depart the hive they fly high.  Usually
        they fly above treetop level.   A lattice or shrub
        wall can be used to get the bees above head
        level.  Once the bees are above head level
        you don't have to worry.  And also, like a previous
        poster mentioned,  my wife was confusing the
        aggressive yellow jacket with honey bees.  If the
        bees are after food, especially meat, chances are
        they are yellow jackets.

==========Peter Wainwright, 8/5/95==========
Hello, I saw this newsgroup on the net and am hoping you can be of 
assistance.

I'm a Councillor for the Town of Sidney, British Columbia, Canada. We are 
a small city with a population of about 11,000 and an area of about 2 
square miles located on the coast of Vancouver Island near Victoria. 

There have been several complaints from the neighbors of one particular 
beekeeper in town who is on a single family lot on in a relatively dense 
part of town and just across the road from a school. My understanding is 
that the individual involved does not exercise "good practice" with his 
beekeeping. Municipal staff looked into the complaints and recommended to 
Council that we consider banning beekeeping within the town.

Banning beekeeping would certainly solve the problem, but is unfair to 
those who are "good" beekeepers and not causing their neighbors any 
trouble. It does seem reasonable that adopt some kind of bylaw to protect 
our residents from this kind of nuissance. At the same time, it would 
be nice if the bylaw was fair to those not causing any problems. Lastly, 
to be of any practical value, the bylaw would have to be enforcable, 
i.e., it has to be reasonably straightforward and not unreasonably 
expensive to take action about a problem.

I am hoping that some of you out there know some examples of "good" 
bylaws that meet these criteria. Ideally, I'd like to hear about other 
jurisdictions in British Columbia, but I'm open to any and all ideas. 
Please write to me at <A HREF="mailto:,([email-masked])> or post 
a response on this newsgroup.

Thanks for your help.

Peter Wainwright
Town of Sidney
2440 Sidney Ave.
Sidney, B.C. 
Canada V8L 1Y7