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Zoning 🟧 Bee keeping: Is it allowed in your city?

Hawkeye66

Hawkeye66

Cyburbian
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Our ordinances treat bees like they do livestock such as pigs, chickens, cattle, etc. and prohibits them. We have a guy keeping a hive now. Its more as a service to the bees. Does anyone allow this in their cities? Especially since pollinators are under stress now. Does your ordinance lay out limits, etc.?
 
Not officially, but we're not out there looking for them either.

It's essentially unregulated.
 
Hawkeye66 said:
Our ordinances treat bees like they do livestock such as pigs, chickens, cattle, etc. and prohibits them. We have a guy keeping a hive now. Its more as a service to the bees. Does anyone allow this in their cities? Especially since pollinators are under stress now. Does your ordinance lay out limits, etc.?
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State Law says we are hands off in terms of regulation. We do however promote it along with the planting of pollinator plant species.
 
Unregulated in our community. On a commercial scale, beekeeping falls under the purview of Michigan's Right To Farm Act.
 
We have a distance from roads, schools, and other people's homes to just deal with a bunch of bees bugging people, but that's it. We have a few apiaries that I don't think anyone in the City could tell you where they are.
 
Hawkeye66 said:
Does anyone allow this in their cities? . . . Does your ordinance lay out limits, etc.?
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Surprise! Beekeeping is legal in NYC!
Surprise! Registering your beehive is free!
Not a surprise! There's a lot of red tape.

NYC beekeepers must register their non-aggressive (only) honeybee (only) hives with the NYC Dept of Health & Mental Hygiene Vector Surveillance within 30 days of hive establishment. The hive(s) location can be for hobbies & commerce only and must be re-registered each year.

Free NYC permit to register hive(s) location:
https://www1.nyc.gov/nycbusiness/description/beekeeper-registration/apply (Beekeeper Registration - NYC Business)

Unfortunately, you must first register as a beekeeper with NY State's Dept of Agriculture & Markets:

Beekeeper Registration

NYS AGM Beekeeper Registration
beekeepers.agriculture.ny.gov

There's a possibility that I may become a registered beekeeper again.
 
Agriculture here would be exempt, hobby-level backyard beekeeping is below the radar until someone makes a big enough stink about it. Friends have a small hive in their suburban backyard. Unless you are right on top of it, you wouldn't see a concentration of bees that made you aware of its existence, and you can stand within a few feet, even right in the "beeline," and they'll just fly around you. They're pretty chill.
 
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