Beekeeping hobbyist Andrew Feenstra has been told by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) that he has to remove his honey bee hives by May 27 after receiving a complaint about the bees in his backyard.
Feenstra, who lives in a detached home in Burlington, has said that he cannot comply with Section 19 of the Bees Act, which requires all hives to be placed at least 30 metres from a property line, as there isn’t enough room on his property near Lakeshore.
OMAFRA has said that the restriction is in place to protect both people and bees.
“The primary function of the Bees Act is to protect the health of honey bees,” Connie Osborne, a media relations specialist at OMAFRA, said. “Particularly from pests and diseases as well as potentially harmful interactions between members of the public and managed honey bees. The 30-metre requirement set out in the Act also balances the need of protecting the surrounding community from incidents such as stings and those with allergies.”
Three to four people in Canada die from bee stings each year on average.
Feenstra has been an amateur beekeeper for five years, and picked up the hobby out of concern for the environment. He originally bought his hives from Backed by Bees, a local beekeeping group in Burlington.
“I always liked the idea of beekeeping,” Feenstra said. “With what's going on with the world and bee populations, I thought that I might as well pick it up as a hobby. I took a few classes in Barrie and I sort of fell in love with it.”
Feenstra’s bees create enough honey for him to harvest and sell a few jars of honey every fall.
The beekeeper believes the restrictions on urban beekeepers are damaging the environment and harm pollination efforts.
“The population of bees is dropping, so the more bees people can have around the better it's going to be for pollinating the ecosystem within Burlington,” Feenstra said. “Getting rid of my bees, the pollination rate is going to go down. It’d be around 160,000 bees moving out of Burlington.”
Despite the regulations of the Bees Act, OMAFRA has offered alternative solutions to beekeepers who can’t comply with the 30 metre rule.
“Beekeepers who cannot meet this requirement can, with a land owner’s permission, place their honeybee colonies on another person’s property,” Osborne said. “The Act doesn’t restrict the placement of hives on land with a dwelling, public building or on land used as a public park provided it meets the requirements for being 30 metres from a property line.”
As of 2023, there are 3,980 registered beekeepers in Ontario and more than 100,000 registered bee colonies.
OMAFRA encourages beekeepers in Ontario to connect with the Ontario Beekeepers Association to stay informed on beekeeping in urban areas.
