Managing Honey Bees in Lake Worth

Commissioner Ryan Maier

Tonight City Commission meeting

12A (New Business)
A.    Ordinance No 2015-17 - First Reading - clarify authority to regulate, inspect, and permit managed honeybee colonies and schedule the public hearing date for December 8, 2015

Honey bees are regulated by the state, not the municipality.
House Bill 1197 (Chapter 2012-83, Laws of Florida)

This bill is only tangentially related to land development regulations, except for two provisions—the bill preempts local government regulation of honeybee colonies, and exempts “farm signs” from the Florida Building Code and any county or municipal code (except floodplain management). The honey bee provision will impact increasingly common attempts to regulate when and where bees can be kept in more urban environments; it is now no longer a local issue.
Read House bill 1197

Beekeeping. The authority to regulate, inspect, and permit managed honeybee colonies and to adopt rules on the placement and location of registered inspected managed honeybee colonies is preempted to the state supersedes any related ordinance adopted by a municipality. See F.S. §586.10(1).
State laws affecting local Codes and Ordinances

This was placed on the Agenda so that the city can simply acknowledge that this is regulated by the state.  It is recommending to the City to adopt language to clarify that the City’s Code of Ordinances does not regulate managed honeybee colonies.