Over 100 Nevadans protested, testified against Senate Bee Bill in Carson City Thursday

Carson City was abuzz Thursday evening at the Nevada State Legislature, in which over 100 Nevadan residents gathered to support honeybees, and their ability to be kept by residents.

Senate Bill 389, relating to the ability to keep bees in residential zones in Nevada, which has been hotly debated since it was announced on March 20, was read during a Natural Resources Committee meeting Wednesday.

Residents attended to an extent that legislative staff needed to open an overflow room to provide for those gathered, in which the meeting was televised from down the hall.

No one in either Carson City or Las Vegas testified in support of the bill

Senator Keith Pickard of District 20 from Henderson spoke on his bill.

First, he discussed NRS 552 and 554, which relates to quarantine zones of Africanized Honey Bees for Clark, Lincoln and Nye County.

A group of residents from a Henderson suburb approached him with complaints of a neighborhood hobbyist who had set up as many as a dozen hives in his 6,500 square foot lot, he said, which they claimed were becoming a nuisance. He also said children in the neighborhood had been stung, and had developed a sensitivity to bees afterwards.

Pickard has often said that the practice of beekeeping in Nevada is unnecessary because there is no colony collapse problem. However, during the hearing on Thursday, he corrected himself. Along with State Etymologist Jeff Knight, they discussed during the meeting that there is, in fact, issues with colony collapse in the state of Nevada, in direct contradiction to the senator’s claims.

“There are a lot of things that were proposed for the cause of (colony collapse),” Knight said. “We’ve looked at it for a number of years, and management is almost always the number one cause. If you don’t manage them properly, they will die. There’s much less of a problem in Nevada then in the rest of the country."

He told the committee that Nevada has one of the lowest problems with colony collapse in the country; however, that doesn't mean colony collapse is not an issue in Nevada.

Mites are one of the biggest threats to honeybees right now, he said.

“We believe all feral honey bees in the quarantine zones to be Africanized,” said Knight. “Africanization is a disease, and swarms need to be destroyed or requeened within 30 days of capture by law.”

"The problem in Southern Nevada is real," said Senator Pickard. "Dogs have been killed, a horse has been killed, and people have been attacked. (Bees) are an important pollinator, but they are not the only pollinators in Nevada."

“You showed us a photograph of a single individual’s backyard,” said the Chairwoman of the Board to Senator Pickard. “Is this going to affect anyone else?”

Senator Pickard said there are a couple dozen residents now considering keeping bees in Henderson, which would affect many more people.

One of the issues with beekeeping in the South, he said, is that there is no education of beekeeping offered like it is in the North, which is an issue for proper beekeeping practices.

He repeatedly stated on the record to the board that this would only affect areas in the South; however, if the quarantine zone would extend to northern Nevada, this would affect the north, as he said in a previous interview.

This bill seems to stemming from an issue revolving around a single suburban neighborhood in Henderson, in which a beekeeper was reportedly keeping a dozen hives in his backyard.

The Henderson beekeeper in question testified to the Board from Las Vegas, opposing SB 389.

He discussed the fact that despite his large amount of bees, no one in his family or his pets had ever been stung, and that they were all able to enjoy their backyard without fear of their buzzy pets. He testified to the fact that both his and his neighbors fruit trees benefited greatly from the introduction of his bees to the neighborhood, and neighbors had come to him raving about how improved their fruits were after his bees moved in.

In 2018, the City of Henderson came out with a new apiary ordinance, which limits the amount of apiaries by property size. Under the new ordinances, he is now in compliance, and has limited his beekeeping to two hives on his property.

The City Manager of Henderson testified from Las Vegas as well, and pointed out that not only has Henderson come out with an ordinance limiting apiaries by lot sizes, which has already taken care of the individual in question which the bill seems to be drafted in response to, but that under Senate Bill 389, there is no limit of how many hives a person can have, unlike the City's ordinance.

Several Northern Nevada residents testified, from the Great Basin Beekeepers, to Bees for Vets, and more.

“Bees are very calming to people with PTSD”, said a representative from Bees for Vets, who came to testify. Senate Bill 389 will negatively affect their program if this bill ends up affecting the north, he said, which would leave veterans without the therapy they need.

Several testifiers spoke on their concern of the proposed amendment giving the power and regulation to the federal government, who would set the quarantine that the amendment discusses. Several people said this is a city or state issue, and they do not wish to cede their power to the federal government regarding their own wildlife and agriculture.

“This will not affect the North,” Senator Pickard reiterated. “And cities cannot cede power they do not have.”

After 33 minutes of testimony from both Carson City and Las Vegas, the board was forced to end, despite the large number of people who were waiting to speak in opposition of the bill.