The Los Angeles City Council will vote Wednesday on a final ordinance for urban beekeeping in residential neighborhoods. That overturns a ban dating back to 1879.
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In this photo taken Friday, January 31, 2014, HoneyLove.org founder, and beekeeper Rob McFarland inspects his beehive, which he has kept on the roof of his Los Angeles house for the past three years.
Once the ordinance is signed by the mayor, Los Angeles will join cities including New York, San Francisco and Washington in allowing beekeeping. “We must have bees”, Councilman Paul Koretz said before the unanimous vote.
After the new ordinance, beekeeping in Los Angeles will be restricted to backyards of single-family homes. There also was concern that hives might contain Africanized bees, which are more aggressive than the European strain.
Supporters of the ordinance have welcomed the decision and said bees are an important part of a healthy environment.
Several opponents testified against the law, including Marcia Rozelle, who warned about public safety issues and complained hive size isn’t addressed. “The guidelines also include local water source, how high the bee hives can be maintained – so that they go to other bee hives or other places and try to avoid or minimize contact with other humans”. People familiar with such bees said honeybees attack only when they are defending their hives.
The city has many hives already – a few illegal and a few wild.
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“Hives maintained by beekeepers are less risky than wild hives; beekeepers effectively tame hives through re-queening – the process of removing an aggressive queen and manually adding a docile queen”.
