Which Cities Have Legalized Beekeeping?

New York City made headlines this year by legalizing beekeeping in the five boroughs. Help us identify other cities, towns and counties that have legalized beekeeping in the last year.

December 2, 2010 at 9:36AM by Kim Flottum | comment

Rooftop bees, like those kept by Yeshwant Chitalkar in Brooklyn, N.Y., were illegal up until very recently in the five boroughs of New York City. Beekeeping is still illegal in many communities across the U.S. and around the world.

How kind has 2010 been to beekeepers?

Earlier this year, The Daily Green and Bee Culture asked readers to tell us where beekeeping is still illegal, in hopes of prodding more communities to follow New York City's lead and legalize this gentle art. Now, we want to identify any cities, towns, or counties that have seen the light on keeping urban bees during the past year. Did your city have a change of heart, allowing citizens to legally keep bees? We want to recognize any locality that has changed the rules and legalized bees.

New York is the Brightest Light this year, but there must be more. If you know a city, a town or a county that turned it around in 2010 let us know. We'll spread the word and let everybody know what a great place that place is to live in... now that bees are allowed.

Send us (email dshapley@hearst.com) the name of your city, the state, and (if you care to) a very short (1 or 2 sentences) story about how it happened. Governments don't move unless someone pushes, and we'd like to know a little bit about those who did the pushing.

And thanks for helping out...

If your community recently legalized beekeeping, and you're considering taking up the hobby, we have 5 questions all aspiring urban beekeepers should ask themselves.

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