Beekeeping & Municipal Codes
It is reasonable, far-sighted, and part of the bigger picture to recognize that beekeeping is a safe, historical, traditional, educational, and valuable activity that benefits the environment and food supply way beyond just honey and pollination.
Search your city’s government website.
If you are interested in keeping bees in your community, you will need to check your municipal (city) code to determine if bees are allowed. To check your municipal code, simply type ” _____ municipal code” in your search engine (___ = your municipality/county name). Not all municipalities have codes on keeping honey bees.
Click on the link and then conduct a search for "bees" or "beekeeping". If there are any bans/restrictions, they should display. There are many communities that have adopted reasonable restrictions on urban and suburban beekeeping.
If you have any updates to this list, please Contact Us.
Below are a couple of referenced samples (links) to review.
Among one of the earliest are the codes from the municipality of Overland Park, which were adopted in the mid-1980s. It was a time when there were concerns about the arrival of Africanized Honey Bees from Central America and Mexico. Those bees were found to have reached Texas in 1989; they can also be found in parts of Oklahoma as well as other states in the southern US in a band ranging from Southern California to South Carolina.
Africanized bees have never been found to have naturally moved into the state of Kansas, although entomologist from KSU had spent a summer chasing down colonies in Kansas. The Africanized bees seem to have latitudinal limitation and only go so far north but not far enough north to have been found in Kansas. While it might seem that we have tropical summers with the heat and humidity, our winters seem arctic at times. Overly defensive Africanized Honey Bees are a tropical bee. Generally speaking, they originate from Africa. Their Latin name is Apis scutellata. Those found in the Americas (released in Brazil in the 1950s) may be a hybridized version. However, their defensive trait(s) are dominate. At any rate, our geographical latitude is further north than their natural range of existence.
Links to the municipal code for these communities may be found here:
1. City of Overland Park, Kansas (see TITLE 06 - Animals, 6.14 Beekeeping) (Municipal Code, 1986)
Looking for a local bee club in Missouri?
For more information, check out Johnson County K-State Research & Extension info on "Beekeeping in the Suburbs" with additional links.
What are others doing...
1. Fort Collins, Colorado (Urban Agriculture)
2. State of Iowa by County (Iowa Bee Laws/Iowa Honey Producers).\
3. Lincoln, Nebraska (City of Lincoln, Municipality)
Northeastern Kansas Beekeepers Association
The Northeastern Kansas Beekeepers Association is a 501(c)5 non-profit organization.
Northeastern Kansas Beekeepers
AssOCIATIOn
NEKBA.ORG
The state of Kansas does not have any beekeeping ordinances. However, your city may have a beekeeping ordinance. Below is a list of ordinances for cities in Kansas, if your city is not listed you should check the city website.