On March 9th, 2020 I spoke during the city council meeting (in Lino Lakes, MN) and urged the council members to reconsider the current city ordinance surrounding beekeeping. I asked that bees be declassified as farm animals or for city code to otherwise change to allow residential beekeeping.

As the city code currently stands it classifies bees as livestock/farm animals and only allows for keeping on rural parcels within the city. I would like the city ordinance to change to support beekeeping in all residential areas of the city.

Probably one of the biggest arguments against urban beekeeping is that some individuals are allergic. I can understand why many may not like the idea of more bees being added to our community - especially those individuals with allergies. However, honeybees do not want to sting and will not sting unless they feel threatened as they are normally not aggressive insects. Statistically speaking, the National Safety Council estimates the odds of dying by a hornet, wasp or bee sting are 1 in 54,093. With that being said, Drones, the male bees in a hive, are not even physically capable of stinging because they have no stinger. Drones also make up a quarter or more of the hive population - meaning that almost a quarter to a half of the hive population are not able to sting. 

Bees are not only vital to our environment but also to our food supply. One third of our global food supply is pollinated by bees therefore, bees keep the inhabitants of the world alive. To put this into perspective, honey bees perform about 80 percent of all pollination worldwide. Just a single bee colony can pollinate 300 million flowers each day. Think of a planet without bees, the surface of our home would be barren and the Earth’s beautiful green cover could completely disappear. There would be no flowers, fruits,or vegetables. Animals would parish due to lack of food, the whole ecosystem would be thrown into havoc.

As far as urban beekeeping is concerned, bees do rather well in urban settings because there are plentiful sources of pollen and nectar and there are less pesticides and insecticides compared to that in the country. Not to mention that physically bees and bee hives do not take up much space therefore many hives can be kept in one area.

Circle Pines and Centerville, nearby neighboring cities to Lino Lakes, both allow beekeeping on residential zoned parcels. I question why Lino Lakes cannot adopt a similar ordinance and urge that we welcome more pollinators into our community. 

I also was approached by NorthMetro TV and have posted the link below to the news story they covered regarding my request to the Lino Lakes City Council. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tgJRhBp2aI