New to bee keeping with questions

[Rodni73]

Good evening all :).

My name is Rodni and I live in Bloomfield, Essex County New Jersey.  I am interested in keeping bees but I do not know the town zoning or laws regarding bees.  I went to town hall and when I asked the guy there he looked at me as if I committed a crime by asking the question! He had no clue.  I do not know where to start! I have read 2 books on beekeeping (Beekeeping for idiots & A book of Bees by Sue Hubbell). I also watched tons of video on U toob regarding Beekeeping. I am very interested but I have never done it before and hence here I am on this forum.  I live in a suburb with a good size backyard. I often have a huge vegetable garden of Jersey Tomatoes, Squash, cucumbers, peppers and so forth (like 40 plants of each) but I am surrounded by pesky neighbors whom I am afraid are going to raise hell if they see a hive or two in the yard.  My yard is fenced in.  Am I liable let’s say if someone got stung by a bee let’s say within 800 yards of the bees? Please bar with me here are my questions:

1-Am I aloud to keep a hive or two in the yard?
2-Do I need permits or inspectors to inspect the hives?
3-I am ready to Register for a class on beekeeping this April for three days with Rutgers 150 $ is this good?  Do you recommend any other place?
4-Is there anybody in Essex county who raise Bees?
5-Thank you so much for answering my questions!

-With Kind Regards
Rodni (rodni73@aol.com).

[indypartridge]

Hello Rodni, and welcome!

I don't know what kind of zoning laws there may be in your area, but generally there aren't restrictions against keeping bees. I highly recommend you get involved with a local beekeeping group. They will be able to answer questions, plus, you should be able to find a few experienced beeks to help mentor you. I see there's an Essex County Beekeepers group, so you don' t have to go far:
http://www.njbeekeepers.org/LocalBranches.htm

[JP]

 here are my questions:

1-Am I aloud to keep a hive or two in the yard? > not sure, you can check on it.

2-Do I need permits or inspectors to inspect the hives? > perhaps

3-I am ready to Register for a class on beekeeping this April for three days with Rutgers 150 $ is this good? > $100.00 and up is usually going rate for those that charge, you may find one cheaper through your local beekeeping org. Do you recommend any other place? > your local beekeeping org

4-Is there anybody in Essex county who raise Bees?

5-Thank you so much for answering my questions! > your welcome. Also, if you do put bees in your back yard, its a good idea to run it by the neighbors, give them fresh honey every harvest, you can place your hives next to something like a tree or a high fence to make their flight path high up, this will keep them from zipping through your neighbor's yards when the bees are to and fro. Keep in mind that bees like chlorinated water, like some neighbor's pools, you may have no control over a situation like this. Offer your bees water sources and they may just leave the pool alone. You could even put a little chlorine in your water source if you needed to.

.....JP

[CBEE]

You will be suprized at how many beekeepers there probably are around your area. After you become a beek you begin to notice hives all over that you never noticed before. I doubt you will have any problems with zoning issues. The neighbors are a different story though. Most of them wont care or wont even notice but some of them will freak out with visions of swarms of killer bees running rampant through their heads. I dont know about the course you are signed up for or what it consists of so cant answer whether its worth it or not. If it is class material only and they have no hives for real hands on then you probably won't get any more from it than you will from a good book. I would say your best bet is to find a beek close to you that will let you come over and get a little real hands on experience

[Cindi]

Rodni, welcome to our forum.  We have so many new members coming on here, what a wonderful thing.  You are asking questions and you will get great answers.  There is no question that is considered dumb, or that will not get an answer, ask ANY question that you want, seriously, it is a good thing, and ask away.

You have an interest in keeping bees, beautiful.  YOu will be surprised how many people would not even know that you had bees in your back yard.  Spend lots of time here, asking questions, reading, you will soon get bees, and then your questions will be even more, hee, hee,  ;) :) :)

Welcome, have a wonderful and awesome day, love our life we live. Cindi

[Scadsobees]

Good evening all :).

1-Am I aloud to keep a hive or two in the yard?
2-Do I need permits or inspectors to inspect the hives?
3-I am ready to Register for a class on beekeeping this April for three days with Rutgers 150 $ is this good?  Do you recommend any other place?
4-Is there anybody in Essex county who raise Bees?
5-Thank you so much for answering my questions!

-With Kind Regards
Rodni (rodni73@aol.com).

I am in the subs too, large lot, large garden.  In Michigan, I don't think that we need permits or anything.  I have 6-9 hives in the yard, the neighbors all know about them and I haven't had any complaints.  The majority of the kids in the neighborhood are usually in my yard (because they are mine  :-D ).
With beekeeping in an urban or suburban area or just with neighbors, the key isn't the rules or laws, it is what kind of neighbors you have.   If they are all cool, you should be fine.  If you have a neighbor that is vocal and complains alot, then you might have trouble, all the laws in the world can't protect you from a bad neighbor.

I would recommend taking a class if you want to spend the money on it.  Depending on how soon you want to start, I would also recommend buying a hive or two and get started even before you take the class.  April is the best time to start a hive.

Rick

[KONASDAD]

Bergen County is the County w/ the most beekeeping restrictive ordinances in the state. Most counties and muncipalities in the state do not have beekeeping regs. At the moment, bees are not livestock and do not fall under right to farm statutes. As a rssult, if your town adopts an ordinance you will be screwed. You will also not be grandfathered in as well unless you were a business enterprise. I am presently working with NJBA and Senator Lance on changing that result. The legislature does not want bees declared livestock or it would qualify for Taxx abatement and people will abuse this as away to avoid paying taxes. Jon Bon Jovi ironically is attempting this very thing and litigating the issue I have been told.Having said all the bad stuff, contrition, not permission ;)! In all likelihood you do not have any restrictions as evidenced by your town clerks reaction. Go for it. Are there people who keep bees in Essex? yes. Join your local branch of NJBA. Please PM me and I would be happy to assist and tell youu the benefits of joining, whom to contact etc. There are also bees to be found in NJ as well if you know where to look. You already made a good choice by joining here. The combo of here w/ club is a good combo of knowledge. Powerful tool!

[KONASDAD]

Here is the presidents listing for Essex Cunty. Landi is a great gal. Just won many ribbons at state fair for hoeny and many cosmetics products as well.



Essex Co Beekeepers
Landi
973-263-0674
beelady@optonline.net

[Kathyp]

konasdad, this is an ot ? about something you said. 

if the bees become livestock, will that not cause the same kind of problems for backyard beekeepers that understudy  has?  wouldn't  it be better to have a separate  ordinance (not ordnance) or ruling that covered honeybees within residential areas?  something that allowed a certain number of hives and also gave concerned neighbors a chance to have a say?

sorry.  had to fix that.  although, ordnance might be called for  :-)

[KONASDAD]

konasdad, this is an ot ? about something you said. 

if the bees become livestock, will that not cause the same kind of problems for backyard beekeepers that understudy  has?  wouldn't  it be better to have a separate ordnance or ruling that covered honeybees within residential areas?  something that allowed a certain number of hives and also gave concerned neighbors a chance to have a say?

I totally agree w/ you. Unfortunately, some NJBA higher-ups want to back door the statute and save money. I am in it for the bees sake myself. I suggested just having a state statute permitting beekeeping on small lot sizes w/ "best practices" guidlines for beekeeping in rural and suburban areas. I was intitally shot down. I am gathering support. I have a similar prob as Tillie and Understudy have w/ the commercial perpective of Beek assoc. Everyone has an ecomomic axe to grind, I only care about the bees. Good news, I am younger than these people and will eventually have more friendly ears w/ time as beekeeping continues to change w/ more hobbyists than ever. I cou8ldn't imagine not being able to have a hive or two in my backyard and would be greatly annoyed if restrictive ordinaces came about

[BMAC]

outstanding support for the newbee....

Hey congrats on your decision and good luck.  Remember....

High fences keep good neighbors.

[CBEE]

Classifcation as livestock has some advangates , but has its disadvantages also.. chiefly the state ag dept and the USDA