Boston’s hobbyist beekeepers can breathe a little easier. Beekeepers used to be required to go through the same approval process as someone who wanted to have cows or horses on their property. But after three years of pushing for a change, on Wednesday the zoning commission gave its final stamp of approval to taking honey bees out of the zoning code.
Now, Boston residents can now keep up to five hives by filing a permit application with the Inspectional Services Division and paying a $25 fee, granted that they follow rules around the hives’ size and keeping them away from the sidewalk and neighbors’ property.
Supporters hope simplifying the beekeeping process will benefit the environment, support local entrepreneurs, and take any stress off of hobbyists.
“Beekeepers can do something that they love without breaking the law and being in violation of some laws, or being afraid that they'll have their small, hobby beekeeping operation shut down,” Val Mayo told GBH News.
Mayo has a few hives at her Hyde Park home and serves as the vice president of the Boston Area Beekeepers Association. Other local beekeepers use their hives to harvest honey or wax, but Mayo says hers focus is all environmental.
“I’m not as much into merchandizing as I’m interested in having bees for environmental reasons,” she said. “It’s important to do whatever you can to encourage situations where you can improve and connect to your environment.”
City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune, who brought the issue to the City Council, said before, Boston residents had to go through “overwhelming regulatory hurdles” to keep bees.
Louijeune pitched the issue in a hearing last year as a way to get rid of unnecessary red tape. “Sometimes we make it harder than it should be to do basic things that are not only good — bring us personal joy — but are good for the city and our ecological health,” she said.
Louijeune connected the change to more broadly supporting the growth of urban agriculture and farming here in Boston.
“People think that cities aren’t good soil, not a good environment for us to think about growing our own produce, growing our own food,” Louijeune told GBH News. “We’re trying to counteract that.”
It’s hard to say how many current beekeepers will be affected by the change: since the zoning process was so extensive, they’ve mostly been operating in quiet violation of the law. Boston Area Beekeepers has more than 250 members, but they don’t all live in Boston.
As far as Louijeune knows, the current zoning law hasn’t been enforced by the Inspectional Services Division. The ISD didn’t return GBH News’ request for more information about enforcement.
Mayo hopes the permit process will encourage more Boston residents to keep bees, but also sees it as part of a much bigger ecological picture.
“It’s not just about bees,” she said. “Whatever we can do to help bees helps other insects. For me, I just hope that with the bee ordinance — and possibly more beekeepers — people will be more aware of how important it is to preserve the environment.”
