Regulating Honey Bees in Gwinnett

Recently, honey bees and backyard beekeeping has caught my attention.

Not too long ago, a citizen of Peachtree Corners with a passion for beekeeping inquired on the existing ordinance for keeping and maintaining apiaries (bee hives) within the zoning districts. Very soon, the City of Peachtree Corners may be required to define its legal position on beekeeping. The law in Gwinnett County is vague. The County’s district zoning classification makes no reference to beekeeping. According to the State Law of Georgia, apiaries are legal unless prohibited and restricted by the county and municipal level zoning ordinances.

Then, should apiaries be permissible placing no restriction within all residential zones?

With the season of spring at hand, it almost sounds like back to basics with our interaction with the nature and of line drawing to include busy bees within our city. Who would have imagined the remotest connection of free bees and their enclosures while charting of a regulation?  In Gwinnett County, the interpretation of the existing ordinance for apiaries within the classification for zoning districts is unclear. There is of course, a difference between commercial and domestic beekeeping as well as African versus indigenous bees. While these differences may require a larger debate, for the purpose of this discussion the focus is only on indigenous beekeeping for domestic backyard hobby use. Now, if the regulation for beekeeping is ambiguous at the County level, then the formulation of rulemaking at the municipal city level will likely follow suit. This is particularly true, while formalizing and clarifying an ordinance during the transition period of developing regulations, revisions and addendums, whatever deemed essential for a newly establishing city such as Peachtree Corners.

 Legislating bees as a State protected ‘farming activity’ are perhaps of trivial importance; unless a bee and honey allergic neighbor incites a complaint against an ongoing backyard hobby next door. Or, if the rights of an avid bee keeper are restricted by putting limits and stipulations based on yard size, zoning codes, size of hives, and the number of colonies. Nonetheless, in the absence of a clear cut regulation, even trivial issues tend to frequent the appeal hearings and based on variances, interpretations of code enforcement take place. Precisely, due to the outcomes of appeal processes in the mid-eighties, Gwinnett County code enforcement interpreted that keeping bees in unincorporated Gwinnett County was permissible in non-residential area. As the City of Peachtree Corners presently corporates to a municipality, it will be necessary for the city to review the County’s beekeeping ordinance in order to comply, update and enforce the existing regulation within our city limits.

According to the State Law of Georgia, bees are categorized as an agricultural product and are perceived as beneficial insects. Additionally, the power of ‘regulating bees’ is handed over to the local government. Chapter 14, Article 2 of the State Law on Agriculture hands over the power to the Commissioners in enforcing the rules, ordinances and regulations in controlling our bees.

In Gwinnett, unlike Forsyth County, laws surrounding keeping honey bees for domestic use and for backyard breeding purposes are not clearly codified based on specific zoning districts. In Forsyth, apiaries are legal in all residential districts. In order to formulate laws governing our bees, Gwinnett County needs to take action by clearly regulating or de-regulating bees within the specific code classifications of zoning districts. Then, it will be easier to apply and adapt the zoning ordinance at the City level.

Should Gwinnett County follow the model of Forsyth in allowing and maintaining bees and hives in all residential districts or restrict beekeeping to only agriculture zoning districts? Or should they not?