banning beehives in our township

[steved73t]

There is a meeting Wed July 29th in Millcreek  Twp, near Erie PA @ 7pm to decide wether or not to ban beehives in residential areas. The zoning board is holding the meeting they want to limit beehives to agraculteral  zoning.  Any ideas we can use to keep beehives legal?

[Eric Bosworth]

If it is that easy can they ban black flies horse flies, wasps and yellow jackets also?

[ed/La.]

Why?  How did this come up?  Go to meting and give your prepared statement on the value of this wholesome hobby. Perhaps you are grandfathered in. If banned go stealth. Cooler bee hives

[Kathyp]

Maybe some folks here can give you the rules for the towns they are in that allow beekeeping?  You could go with list of places that allow it and the rules they use.  perhaps a compromise between none and some could be reached?

[BeeMaster2]

What is causing this? If someone has the idea that it is to keep AHB out, in an area that has them, which you do not, the exact opposite is true. The AHB will fill the void.
Don't you have a lot of fruit trees (apples, pears, plums, grapes) and don't people have gardens? Ask how well they are producing. There is a close relationship between the bees and production.
Do your home work, find out who has bees and check with the surrounding area. Let the people know that if the hives are removed, unless there are feral hives, their fruit production will seriously drop. When my wife first grew her garden, I did not have bees and she had lots of flowers but almost no fruit. There were no feral bees here. As soon as I got bees, her garden did real well.
Most areas of the U.S. lost most of their feral honey bees and native bees over the last 16 years. A lot of places are still void, especially if they don't have Beekeepers who do not treat.
The state of FL took over control of beekeeping to stop local areas from banning beekeeping. This prevented void areas which the AHB (African Honey Bee) would fill in plus FL is a major crop producer, commercial and residential. It is not uncommon for people to have a lot of fruit trees in their yards.
Jim

[steved73t]

the people who have the hives don't own them. keeping them for another person whose yard  isn't ideal for bees. The people who have the hives checked with zoning before getting the hives and were told they were OK. After they were there the neighbors started complaining that they were afraid of getting stung. They said 15 stings can kill. One neighbor is allergic.  A friend of my told me of the problem. I don't have hives but a neighbor a few houses up does. I've noticed more bees in my yard lately. My friend said his berries did much better this year after the hives were set up. The area were the new hives are is high density with 1/4 acre lots or smaller. I know that anyone that has fruit trees, berries, gardens, or flowers benefits from bees. I've lived here all my life(59 years) and noticed the lack of bees last few years. I don't have my lawn sprayed, I  have dandilions and clover and milkweed. I also have apple, pear and rasberries. I will go to the meeting and give my opinion on the benefit of bees. Just looking for facts to base my opinion. Thanks, Steve

[Cuttingedge]

Time to start painting your hives camouflage. Maybe strategically place some shrubs around them?
Townships banning insects is just ludicrous.

[NeilTheCop]

I'm assuming someone has voiced the opinion that for the safety of the public bees should not be allowed in residential areas, and I'm sure that someone will have some statistics or horror stories relating to bee stings at the meeting.
Don't tackle this head on by explaining how beneficial bees are, try this approach instead.
Point out these statistics:
On average 5.7 million people are attacked by dogs each year, and nearly 900,000 require emergency hospital treatment, 27,000 required reconstructive plastic surgery and there are on average 30 fatalities a year, mostly children.
Now ask the meeting when they intend to ban dogs as well as bees in residential areas 

[buzzbee]

See this article in PA beekeeper
http://www.pastatebeekeepers.org/pdf/Zoning.pdf

http://patch.com/pennsylvania/plymouthwhitemarsh/plymouth-tweaks-draft-beekeeping-ordinance-reduces-requirements

Google Plymouth Township PA bee ordinance and you should get a few related articles. I think they came to a decwent compromise,but I lost track.

[CBT]

I thought the Federal Government had or is considering banning that type of regulation by towns and allowing up to three hives per household. Am I dreaming?

[buzzbee]

I have not heard this,but I also would not like the fed getting involved in what should be decided by each municipality.
Give the facts and counter the hype.

[Michael Bush]

I think the most important point is that there WILL be bees in the residential areas.  Those bees may be in the trees or they may be in peoples hives.  They are much easier to manage in peoples hives.  They are usually much LESS of a nuisance than a dog and most neighbors will never notice.

[jayj200]

If they ban one form of livestock, will they ban others?

[BeeMaster2]

Jay,
A lot of communities all ready do. Right now, Jacksonville has trial areas where you can have 4 hens with a permit. Most other farm animals are banned.
Jim

[rober]

I've posted this before. a week after I placed 3 hives in my yard the local health dept. knocked on my door ( bees are under his domain ). a neighbor had voiced concerns. I'm on 1/2 acre & the closest house to the northwest corner is on a full acre & the house is 200 ft. from the hives. that's where I put them. on my east line I'm looking at a full block of back yards & all of those houses are rentals & that's where the call came from. again the closest house is 200 ft. from the hives. the inspector informed me that my hives were legal & I replied that I had checked the city's livestock rules before I placed them. ( we cannot have chickens here unless you have a full acre ). he thought everything looked proper. I asked him what he'd tell the neighbor & he replied he'd tell them to keep their kids the h*ll out of my yard. he also sprays for mosquitos & told me he will not spray my block. he's been back a few times saying his boss wanted to know what they could do to help beekeepers. there are 4 of us in town that he knows of. I've never had a problem here except for one time when the girls took over a birdbath for the water. I told that neighbor to drain it for 3 weeks & I put out more water sources & with a new batch of bees the problem sorted itself out. they do frequent another neighbors garden pond but that neighbor does not care & says the fish get an occasional bee snack. I do make sure that I do not inspect any hives when kids are outside playing in case a hive gets cranky. I did have one neighbor come by with a dead yellow jacket complaining that his kid had been stung. I informed him that the bug in question was a yellowjacket & for future reference that all of my bees wore collars. he believed me about the collars & left. I think that keeping low key, being diligent with swarm management, & using common sense when working the hives goes a long ways in avoiding problems. my current neighbors are all supportive.

[steved73t]

livestock are already outlawed. The neighbor that complained gives the bee keeper the finger any time he sees him. I heard 2 of the 3 supervisors are in favor of the ban. I've been active in the Township for 30 years so I have a good relationship with the supervisors. I will call today and talk to 1 to see if the zoning commission can make a decision or if they make a recommendation to the supervisors. I'm trying to get as many people that garden to go to the meeting as I can. I heard this is the 2nd time the supervisors got a complaint about hives. I'll tell the supervisors about the Plymouth ordinance. Thanks for the support. Steve 

[KeyLargoBees]

When I registered my hives here in Florida I actually had the regional inspector say "if anyone gives you any crap pass them my cell # I will set them straight" according to her Florida law allowing backyard beekeeping supersedes any local municipality or HOA regulations and as long as we abide by distance from property line regulations and obstruction height regulations no one can ban hives....Florida doesn't always do it right but as far as the bees go it seems they have.

Good luck to you Steve!!!

[BeeMaster2]

Good luck Steve. Get as many people that will support beekeeping as you can. Politicians work on numbers, no common sense.

KLB,
"Florida doesn't always do it right but as far as the bees go it seems they have. "
That is because without bees, Florida will lose billions in revenue from a serious drop in crop production.

[Eric Bosworth]

"Florida doesn't always do it right but as far as the bees go it seems they have. "
That is because without bees, Florida will lose billions in revenue from a serious drop in crop production.

Ahhh... Gotta love that orange blossom honey!

[Michael Bush]

In my experience people, including congress, the senate, town councils and even CEOs are often under they impression that they are deciding one thing when in fact they are deciding something entirely different.  The town council probably believes they are deciding whether there will be bees in their town.  They are not.  They may think they are deciding how many bees will be in their town.  They are not.  They have no control over that.  The environment decides how many bees it can support.  What they are deciding is WHERE those bees will be.  Will they be in a hive where they are easily requeened if they are a nuisance, or easily moved.  Or will they be in the trees and walls and soffits where they will not be easy to manage.