<p class="p1"><strong>Can people keep bees in the city of Lake Charles?</strong></p><p class="p2">Yes.</p><p class="p2">But beekeepers must register their honey bee colonies with the state Agriculture Department each year, and they must abide by city code Article VI, which regulates beekeeping, said city spokesman Matt Young.</p><p class="p2">“The article establishes requirements for sound beekeeping practices and prohibits beekeepers from keeping colonies which cause unhealthy conditions, interfere with the normal use of human or animal life, or interfere with the use and enjoyment of property,” Young wrote in an email.</p><p class="p2">Under the code, beekeepers, must use “Langstroth-type hives with removable frames” — that is, modular, stackable hives — and they must meet several other conditions, he said.</p><p class="p2">For example, the code says beekeepers with colonies that are “within 25 feet of a public or private property line” must maintain flyway barriers — walls, fences, dense vegetation — that are at least 6 feet tall, “so that all bees are forced to fly at an elevation of a least six feet above ground.”</p><p class="p2">Beekeepers must maintain a water source so their bees don’t “congregate at swimming pools, bibcocks, pet watering bowls, bird bath, or other water sources” where they may encounter people, pets or birds.</p><p class="p2">And, the code says, beekeepers must “requeen” a colony whose members are “unusually aggressive” or have a tendency to swarm. Additionally, the code places limits on colony density based on tract size:</p><p class="p3">A quarter-acre or less — two colonies.</p><p class="p3">Over a quarter-acre but less than a half-acre — four colonies.</p><p class="p3">Over a half-acre but less than an acre — six colonies.</p><p class="p3">An acre or more — eight colonies.</p><p class="p2">“Regardless of tract size, where all hives are situated at least 200 feet in any direction from all property lines of the tract on which the apiary is situated, there shall be no limit to the number of colonies. …,” reads Section 4-108 of the code.</p><p class="p2">“Regardless of tract size, so long as all property other than the tract upon which the hives are situated, that is within a radius of at least 200 feet from any hive remains undeveloped property there shall be no limit to the number of colonies.”</p><p class="p2">For more information on beekeeping, visit the website of the Louisiana Beekeepers Association, http://labeekeepers.org, or contact Keith Hawkins, the LSU AgCenter agent in Beauregard Parish, at 337-463-7006 or khawkins@agcenter.lsu.edu.</p><p class="p5">For more information, visit <a href="http://www.cityoflakecharles.com" target="_blank">www.cityoflakecharles.com</a>.</p>