Backyard bees pros and cons go to hearing

CITY HALL — Backyard beekeeping will go to a public hearing for input, City council decided today.

Responding to a request from a beekeepers group some months ago, council will consider rezoning amendments that would allow relaxation of the restrictions around the keeping of aviaries within the urban area.

“Upon review of the issue, staff determined that beekeeping plays an important role in promoting biodiversity and food security in that bees pollinate plants, including food crops,” staff wrote in a report to council.

“Honeybees also provide useful products such as honey, bee pollen, royal jelly and beeswax. On the other hand, beekeeping may pose risk and nuisance to human populations as bees may occasionally sting, swarm, gravitate to adjacent bodies of shallow water, and leave waxy droppings in the springtime.”

Under the changes, beehives would be allowed on all standard-sized single- and two-family lots, and on school, church or park property for educational purposes.

Beehives would have to be kept in back yards pointing away from neighbours, and set back from property lines.

Staff would develop an information package “to educate beekeepers on the proposed bylaw changes and best practices for urban beekeeping, as well as to provide the public with resources to contact in the event of swarming, defensive behaviour, or other beekeeping-related issues.”