In a letter dated June 5th, 2006 the director of Plant Protection Division 
announced the repeal of the MN apiary statute. 

Here is a quotation from the letter. 

"With the repeal of the apiary statute, the Mn Dept Ag will no longer 
conduct routine apiary inspections, distribute newsletters, nor mantain 
a publicly available database of apiary locations"

Also in my mailbox is the summer 2006 newsletter from the MN Honey 
Producers Association. The president  had a 2 page description of his 
experience  succesfully lobbying the state legislature for the repeal of 
the apiary statute. 

In addition mention was made in the newsletter how the organizations 
vice president was forced to resign because during the "legislature 
mission" he had promoted "an agenda contrary to the motion and vote 
of the executive board" concerning the repeal of the apiary statute. 

Here are some facts and figures from the fall 2005 Apiary Program 
Report published by the MDA. 

Of 446 registered beekeeprs in 2005, 66 were commercial (300 or 
more colonies), 34 were sideliners (50-299 colonies) and 346 
hobbyists. Minnesota is the 6th largest producer of honey in the USA. 

During 2005, 62 colonies were found by MDA inspections to contain 
small hive beetle. This was a large increase from 2004 the first year 
SHB was found in Mn. All of these colonies were from migratory 
commercial beekeepers. 

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