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Friday, August 9, 2013

Honey Bees in the City

As you may or may know from reading previous posts, I live in St. Paul, MN. And while beekeeping in the city is becoming more popular, the regulations make it pretty hard to do. I mean, seriously, who can put a beehive at the very center of their property surrounded by a 5ft high fence that's 20ft in diameter (because we can't have kids get closer than 10ft to the hive)?

Those factors, along with wanting to do this project with my dad so my kids get to see their grandpa more and work with him on a fun project, prompted me to keep my bees at my dad's house outside the city where the regulations are fewer and farther between.

Despite the regulations in the city, however, there are still bees! Saw this beautiful girl (the one and only I've seen this summer) in my yard last week while I was mowing the lawn. Maybe someday the beekeeping restrictions will lesson, and I can raise bees in the city.

  


4 comments:

  1. 10 feet sounds about right for a "safe zone" of a normal colony, if you had a flat roof you could put them up there. It does kinda suck to not be able to have bees in your back yard but other cities don't even allow you to keep bees. its interesting how the bees interest in clover is so late, usually in July but this year its in August.

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    1. Yes, 10 feet is probably about right, but I have a fenced in yard. I wish the fence around the exterior of my property counted, and I could let whom I wanted into the backyard with the bees. And, unfortunately, no flat roof. For now I'm stuck making the trip out of the city to my dad's where I keep my bees.

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  2. As long as your own children are not allergic, what is the point of the fence? Are you supposed to child proof your whole yard so that some trespassing brat doesn't pester your bees and get himself stung? Should we pass a law that says residents are in violation if they leave peanut butter laying around? I'm glad I don't live in a city. Nosey busybodies running the show.

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    1. Haha. Yes, I believe that is the point of the regulation. To protect anyone who might happen to trespass into my yard. Also my immediate neighbors. The fence is supposed to change the bees flight trajectory so they go vertically out of the hive and over people's heads instead of horizontally into the walking paths of anyone nearby.

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