Honey Bee Protection Program

About the Program

Category: County Administration and Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2017

The San Diego County Honey Bee Protection Program took effect in Nov. 2015. This program developed a comprehensive approach to promote responsible beekeeping while protecting public safety in an Africanized honey bee zone. The Honey Bee Protection Program implemented a three-tiered approach to beekeeper requirements that increase the capacity for beekeeping within San Diego County’s jurisdiction. Each tier is assigned a level of management and mitigation activities based on the number of hives at a property. The different tiers have increasing setback distances for hive placement from roads, neighboring dwellings, property lines, and sensitive sites that a beekeeper must meet. The setback distances were created for public safety purposes based on the defensive zone of healthy, non-Africanized hives. Also included are mandatory online training for new beekeepers, rapid response to complaints from a specially trained inspector, outreach and education to stakeholders, inspection to ensure compliance, and the authority to issue fines or abate serious public nuisance hives if necessary.