west virginia passes nice bee law

That's kinda redundant. If I operate in "good faith and a reasonable manner" were is a lawsuit going to come from to begin with? If I have a beehive in an area that somebody may come into contact with it and they get stung I would not be exempt from a lawsuit because the term "reasonable" can imply that if somebody is able to gain access to my hive, I kept it in an unreasonable manner.

Basically they passed a law to require beekeepers to register their hives with the state... and then threw in a useless clause to gain more support for it.

I don't have any issue with bee yards having to be registered as long as it has no impact on my ability to collect feral colonies.

All apiary certificates of registration expire on December 31, of each year and must be renewed annually.

Oh yeah a "real nice bee law". And the fee for registration? If there is none now you can be sure there will be in the future; after all the good people of Virginia should not have to bare the expense of regulating a small group of individuals hobby. If you fail to re register, where did you beehives go? Who did you sell them to? Their name and address? How many do you have now?
Kinda reminds me of the written long term plan to eliminate guns. Free and easy registration of everything to get a handle on who has them and then tighten the paperwork, increase the penalties and increase the cost.

And the fee for registration? If there is none now you can be sure there will be in the future; after all the good people of Virginia should not have to bare the expense of regulating a small group of individuals hobby.

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As far as I can tell this law will not effect Virginia at all

Sounds like big brother thinking he has to regulate everything, in everyone's life. I'm not interested in that. Of course, I'm another one of those rebellious Texans.

A friend of mine, that lives in WV, said they lost a LOT of hives this year. I wonder if the loss had anything to do with the govt' trying to get involved with beekeeping.

Chick said:

I wonder if the loss had anything to do with the govt' trying to get involved with beekeeping.

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Let us know exactly what "big brother" did to his bees if and when you find out.

Maine has a hive regulation law and it costs $2.00 total to register up to 5 or 6 hives. For that the beekeeper gets the expertise of one of the most knowledgable and helpful beekeepers around. Worth every penny and then some simply for the two talks he gives at our local bee association every year.

For my two bucks, I'll accept that help if I need it and the knowledge he passes along. Or I could live my life with anti-government "big-brother" paranoia about what they "might" really have in mind for me and my bees.

Wayne

Many states have apiary registration laws. It isn't that uncommon. Some states even require yearly inspections.

We've had fee based hive registration here for
as long as I can remember. Cheap insurance against
pesticide.

All pesticide applicators (air and ground) are responsible
to know where the registered yards are, and are liable
for damages should they kill any bees.

Chick said:

Sounds like big brother thinking he has to regulate everything, in everyone's life. I'm not interested in that. Of course, I'm another one of those rebellious Texans.

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You might want to take a look at your states bee codes. They are quite lengthy.
http://tais.tamu.edu/

bluegrass said:

You might want to take a look at your states bee codes. They are quite lengthy. http://tais.tamu.edu/

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Exactly what chick was referring to. It's just $2.00 but it opens the door to government control and regulation. :scratch: Still trying to figure out where our Constitution gave government the permission to regulate beekeeping?

Kindest Regards
Danny Unger

Our government isn't interested in "controlling" our bee hives, and certainly not in taking "everything you have."

Tired old big-brother arguments that probably belong in the tailgater forums.

Wayne

I think they want our bees to secretly train them into an elite bomb sniffing fighting force. Maybe CCD is what happens to the bee hives that don't submit

bluegrass said:

I think they want our bees to secretly train them into an elite bomb sniffing fighting force. Maybe CCD is what happens to the bee hives that don't submit

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Today the swine flu (heard the latest?) next season.......BEE FLU.... OMG we're all going to die !

someone p.m'd me offlist and said that what I had found was not the final bill but before the senate modified it and that the language in the final bill seems to make it harder for someone to sue you and give details of the rules to follow. if anyone has the final bill could they post the adress to it

bluegrass said:

As far as I can tell this law will not effect Virginia at all

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Yes, we got rid of those 'over the mountain' nuts over 150 years ago.

There are a lot of laws in place, with no funds for enforcement. So, they were a total waste of time to establish. We have a state apiary inspector. That's right ONE, for the whole state of Texas, that is 860 miles across. How is he suppose to monitor what goes on? They have a hard enough time, just trying to monitor livestock movements in and out of the state. They can't even monitor the Interstate hiways going in and out of the state, 1 day a week! I'm not paranoid about big brother, I just believe you need to learn to be self sufficient, and not rely on my tax money to teach you how to take care of your bees. Nor do I want him telling me how to do it, either.

I like how they do things in Texas
Part time state government? State income tax against the constitution?
Nevermind tracking the beehives, track those folks sneaking in over the border!

Sorry Barry - I know we're way off base here!t:

I have no problem what so ever with our hive registration process. Regeristing your hive isn't big brother watching you. The benefits are really nice. There is a story of a guy north of here. He kept bees and had somewhere around 8 I think. So one year his neighbor starts noticing little brown specs on his car. The neighbor got tired of it and had it tested. Turned out that it was bee poop. Well the neighbor didnt want the bees pooping on his car. :lpf: Long story short the beek didn't have his hives registered and had to move his hives! This could have been prevented if he paid the 5 bucks by june the 1st.

I pay 5 dollars for one of the most knowledgable beeks I know to come to my house and look thru my hives. I am lucky I am even in county that has a bee inspector. The inspector program was sharply cut last year and we lost a bunch.

So those of you wining (and some other words)...please just stop. The goverment won't take over your hives.

This is very interresting. I'm in Tennessee and we already have to register our hives, but we get no liability suit protection in our laws that I am aware of. I think that part of this law is great and I'm going to start lobbying my state's officials to adopt a similar law.