Denver Officials Threaten to Jail Backyard Beekeeper
Wednesday June 18, 2008
The city of Denver picked a weird time to enforce a ban on backyard beekeeping. As has been widely reported, honey bees are in serious decline. Many states and universities now offer classes for beginning beekeepers, and some even provide startup grants to encourage backyard beekeeping.
Marygael Meister took a beekeeping class at the Denver Botanic Gardens, and decided to give it a try. She invested $1,500 in hive boxes and bees, and established three thriving bee colonies in her backyard rose garden.
An anonymous neighbor complained to the city, and Meister was slapped with a violation of the city's ban on backyard hives. Unless she removes her bees by June 25, Meister could be fined $999 and sent to jail for up to a year.
Comments
Now I’m curious, did the class she took mention the city regulations? Seems to be counter-intuitive for them to offer a course on backyard beekeeping if there are city restrictions against it?
Sheesh! If they’re killer bees, maybe. We Eastern Europeans “thrive on hives.” It’s very important to the culture from a culinary standpoint and health standpoint. Honey has become awfully pricey making some people go without. Why in heavens name was this class offered if backyard beekeeping is banned? Did the woman flout provisos from the Denver Botanic Gardens or didn’t the agency provide the info?
This country is so over regulated it’s crazy! What a waste of taxpayers money!
Here we are witha international scare over a scarcity of bees. When can we start fining city officials for wasting time and resources in meaningless pursuits!!!
I have to agree with some of the above comments - that the folks taking and teaching the class should know about the city regulations - and that the regulations are pretty ridiculous. Bees are needed - bees and bats are being “persecuted” (perhaps because they aren’t “cute”). Bats are exterminated in the ‘burbs all the time when they are needed to help with the insect populations.
Seems the class the lady took should have steered her toward local regulations. At least she was given time to relocate the hives. But…it burns me that once again an unknown coward whom dosen’t have any guts, got some one else to voice their opinion for them. The coward most likly dosen’t know bees are responable for one third of all our food produced. one has to wonder if the one complaining was even a legal resident of the country ?
I agree with Dave, the unknown assailant probably has no idea that Bees are needed and very helpful, instead they might have a fear of these wonderful creatures because of some picture painted by TV. I am sure Denver never enforced the rules as they’re probably aren’t that many bee keepers, so it’s one of those hush hush regulations…until someone complains and then BOOM! such a shame, like Gardening, bee keeping is such a blast, takes stress away and is very educational for children and adults alike, I feel the city of Denver is taking her crop of knowledge away and that’s so shameful. Hopefully someone will let her put the hives in their field outside city limits, that might be a wonderful drive for her as she checks on her little children. Good Luck Marygael. anyone notice how part of her name is close to the name for Earth Goddess in greek?
Walking in from my truck through my back yard today I was attacked by honey bees (when animals attack style) from the hive(s) my neighbors are keeping in their backyard. I did not know they were keeping bees or that they had decided to harvest honey and spray the bees at 10:30 AM this Monday morning when I was returning home from my morning errands. I was not the only one stung. I commiserated with three other people in and around the corner where we live in the middle of downtown were also stung. It was so bad there were two or three separate calls to 911 reporting the incident. Thank God I am not allergic to bee stings because after the 15-20 stings I endured in about 90 seconds I do not think I would have made it back to the phone.
I guess it never occurred to the fully beekeeper suited people in my neighbor’s yard that it would have been nice to let the neighborhood know that they were going to piss those bees off and that we should beeee careful! I am total against keeping bee farms within city limits because you cannot protect those who do not want pissed off bees from those who do not consider the consequences of their actions when they harvest and medicate. The last thing I want is a bunch of untrained beekeepers in our neighborhoods acting as if they know what they are doing.
My neighbor and the beekeeping friends that convinced her to have these bees are now apologizing profusely. Maybe it is because they do not want me to turn them in to animal control or maybe it is because they do not want me to sue them. Both options are on the table but, I thought is best not to make that decision while my body still aches from the stings and I still feel myself swatting at everything that flies near me.
Their rationalization or excuse is that they have never seen the bees react this way before. I have heard more than one pit bull story on the news when the dog’s owner says the same thing. Bees are wild and you cannot put them on a leash or keep them out of your neighbor’s yard. I hope you consider this before you change the law that was written to protect us. A shrinking bee population is no justification for allowing bee farming within our city limits. They must have know something was possible or they would not have been wearing those beekeeper suits!
Dear Stung,
You sound like a crybaby to me. If the neighbor is sorry, if there is no lasting damage, and if the neighbor will rectify the problem so that it will not happen in the future, why in the world would sueing still be “on the table”. Do you have a trial lawyer friend or something? Let it go.
Sounds to me like you were poking around that bee hive. Honey bees only sting when you are trying to go into their home…..Maybe you should stay away from them.