Randy wrote
"Seth, if it were the case that a landowner could keep his bees within his property lines, then I'd see your point"
Perhaps the property is then to small to keep bees on...lol
My point was this isn't the commons, its privately held land and my personal feelings are no beekeeper has a "right" to another's private property.
As in my rabbit brush example Why should a few hobby beekeepers with the land minority, dictate the actions of a larger landholder.
In my opion, the only ethical way to do things, would be to study the carrying capacity and develop animal units, then to alow people to turn out on to "the commons" a number of head scaled to their property size. This is how things worked with the grazing association I was involved with. But that would likely have a negative effect on many of the small hobbyists with just a postage stamp yard
I am well aware of the problem, I keep in the suburbs, Beekeeping is a "thing" out here, and over grazing is a problem, In my main yard wile I am in a spot zoned for a beekeeping operation, but I am surrounded by back yards with 2-3 hives in them (7 sites with in a 1.5 mile radius that I am a ware of, likely many more hiding in fenced back yards)+ I had another keeper drop 20 hives next to me, now neither of us make much honey in that yard. Don't get me wrong as a beekeeper I am mad, guy needs to move off my spot, but form an ethics stand point he and his land owner have as much right as I do
I am not saying heading off the issue is wrong, but I don't like being told how I can use my land. And I see it as wrong to tell one land owner they can't keep bees or rent out there land to a beekeeper do to their neighbor doing it all ready, there needs to be room for both land owners rights, this likely means the 1st land owner/keeper are taking more then their fair share and needs to cut back. But no established beekeeper in their right mind is going to vote to cut back there hive count so the guy next door can have more.
Remember I am taking this on from a land rights perspective, not a beekeeper one.
Seth C
________________________________
From: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of randy oliver <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2019 12:32 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [BEE-L] Japanese Knotweed
>
> > I see no grounds for me to claim exclusive beekeeping rights over
> property I don't have rights or an agreement to.
>
Seth, if it were the case that a landowner could keep his bees within his
property lines, then I'd see your point. But that isn't the case.
Instead, this is a "Tragedy of the Commons" issue--if one isn't familiar
with this famous essay, it's freely available online.
What the hobby and commercial beekeepers in my county are facing is
competition from out-of-county large commercial beekeepers who only want
holding yards in which they can set hundreds of hives prior to or after
almond pollination, and feed them syrup to avert their starvation (they are
not interested in a honey crop).
There are only two towns in my County, but hundreds of hobbyists, and three
small commercial beekeepers. All that it would take is for a single
out-of-towner to place a large drop of hives next to either of our towns,
and no hobby beekeeper would make a drop of honey. So the question to the
bee and ag community is whether our local beekeepers had a "right" to the
common pasture of our county.
I presented first to our County's Agricultural Advisory Commission, which
was composed mostly of large ranchers/growers/landowners. Before I got my
second sentence out, one said "this is a perfect example of the Tragedy of
the Commons." At that point I knew that our proposal would be a soft sell.
We have the full support of the ag community, the hobby beekeepers, our Ag
Commissioner, and us commercial beekeepers. Our goal is to come up with
self-imposed restrictions on commercial apiary spacing and hive numbers per
yard. This is for the purpose of providing for the sustainability of hobby
and commercial beekeeping for the residents of our county, including any
out-of-county beekeepers who follow our rules--they are not singled out.
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com<http://www.ScientificBeekeeping.com>
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