Change in rules for Florida Beekeepers - and not a good change

[FloridaGardener]

Friends, I'm sorry to report that the State of Florida Division of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant and Apiary Inspection have made a new interpretation of their "Best Management Practices" (BMP rules) and it's not a beekeeper-friendly change.  It affects dozens, perhaps hundreds, of backyard beekeepers who live close to golf courses.  I have friends and colleagues who will be disappointed that like me, their apiaries must be relocated or abandoned. 

According to the new interpretation of the BMP, golf courses are now considered public places like churches and schools, and as such, the passers-by on a golf course are "at risk" from bee colonies located within 150 feet of the edge of the golf course.   Since a golf course has a wide band of 'rough' or scrub vegetation between the fairway and any adjacent private parcel, it seems especially unfair.  Yet golfers do not congregate in groups of more than four in 100 square feet, and stand well back from each other when playing their swing.  Having played golf, I'm aware one of golf's features is that players cruise alone though a 200 acre park.

We applied for an exemption, since, for our .53 acre lot,  Fla. Ag has directed putting our two colonies in our front yard, only 20 feet from Mr. Grumpy Neighbor's garage, quite close to a neighbor's pool,  and 40 feet from a street where kids play,  older folks stroll, and the county sprays for mosquitoes on Tuesdays.  I'm not looking forward to hive inspections while Mr. Grumpy with a chip on his shoulder glares on, swinging at bees.  Previously, the hives were in a woodland glen 80 feet beyond his rear fence.

Our application for an exemption to remain in the back near the abandoned golf course (currently being replatted as new home sites)  was denied. The attorneys for the State of Florida are having nothing to do with common sense on this.  This was a decision by Dr. Trevor Smith, Director, and Dr. Greg Hodges, Assistant Director, Division of Plant Industry, Florida Department of Agriculture.

I'm asking Florida Beekeepers to speak up with a concrete definition of what BMP rules describe as a "public place."  It was previously not well defined in the BMP rules, though the examples of churches and day cares were used to point out that where a large and consistent density of people congregate, an apiary is not appropriate.  Fla. Dept of Agriculture's lawyer tells us the only way to modify this decision is to re-write the BMPs with specific language so that what is a risky location is made much better defined.  And then golf courses, with their occasional drive-by traffic, can be excluded from the new interpretation as a "public place." 

[Acebird]

Interesting.  We have been looking for houses in Loxahatchee and at the end of a street is a commercial beekeeper with pallets of hives.  These are basically 1.25 acre lots.  It is no wonder there are four houses for sale bordering the property.  I can't imagine why a commercial beek would want to be there.  It would be very easy to poison those hives.

[bwallace23350]

Odd. I am in Alabama and a course near me has a feral hive between hole 1 and 3. It has been there 3-4 years at least in the cavity of a living pine tree. No one is bothered by it or wants it removed from what I know. It might have been there more than 4 years.

[FloridaGardener]

It doesn't make sense because there are already limitations on the number of colonies, based on the size of a parcel.  Beekeeping is legal inside New York City. Houses are further from each other when they're by a golf course.  Many beekeepers here have kept apiaries next to the golf course for over ten years, even in HOAs, which I'm not in.   Bees aren't interested in the grass of a golf fairway, only the treetops.

We spent hundreds of dollars preparing a brick patio and surrounding it with tall evergreen shrubs.  We were compliant there for TWO YEARS.  Now, we had to spend hundreds more creating a new fenced area with a working surface. 

The only way the State of Florida will let me put them back in the wooded section at the rear of our home is if the Best Management Practices are re-written to describe "what exactly does a 'public place' mean." 

This picture shows the golf courses within a 20 MINUTE DRIVE of our house. There are thousands of homes next to golf courses developed in the 1970s-1990s.  The courses which were largely used as wetlands and stormwater runoff channels and to make the homes more attractively situated.

[Acebird]

I have no idea where you are on the economic scale but never forget that money talks.  Even make believe money talks.