CORRESPONDENCE - 11C - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Mitre -Ramirez, Norma From: Sean Crowley <seancrowley@road runner.com> Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2017 2:33 PM To: eComment Subject: Item 11C Beekeeping SEAN CROWLEY Professional beekeeper & educator 531 E Rockaway Drive Placentia, CA 92870 714-225-2434 seancrowley@ road run ner.com Background: I have been VP of Orange County Beekeepers Association and Beekeepers Association of Southern California. I was asked by the California State Beekeepers Association to head a Master Beekeeping program in Southern CA. I am currently teaching beekeeping at Cal Poly Pomona to both students and the public at large this weekend at CPP. I have taught hundreds of people beekeeping techniques and I am considered an expert in the field. I am currently running 160 hives and run a pollination group which will take approximately 400 hives to the almonds this year. I do not live in Santa Ana nor do I intend to keep bees in Santa Ana. I do however like to promote urban beekeeping which is why I am here. I went to the community meeting in August. Since then I developed a set of Best Management Practices and gave a copy to your staff to use some of which was gladly used in the "Changing Context in Urban Beekeeping" section. Since then I have tried on numerous occasions both by telephone and email to try and get an update from Jerry on the beekeeping initiative only to be stonewalled. Here are some concerns with the code as written: 1. While allowing beekeeping in residential homes is wonderful I would suggest opening it up to the entire city. Roof tops of commercial building, community gardens and other locals can be wonderful places to keep bees yet would be excluded under this new regulation. 2. By limiting the number of hives you allow, the city will be creating its own bee nuisance issue. A common beekeeping practice in the spring is to split hives to keep them from swarming and combine hives in the dearth of summer when they shrink so that the hive will have a large enough population to survive the winter. By not allowing the beekeeper to do this commonly accepted practice of splitting anc recombining the city will be generating swarms as beekeepers try to manage hives which should be split. So the city creates a situation which forces a swarm then penalizes the beekeeper later for that swarm created. 3. There has been a great deal of restrictions placed on where the hives can be located with setbacks anc requiring that the hives be behind the building lines instead of allowing your citizens to pick a location which will suit their needs and yet at the same time safeguard the neighbors and public at large. Placement of the bee hive should be in a manner which will keep bees from infringing on neighbors properties or the public at large with accepted beekeeping principals namely don't put your bees flight path where someone will be walking and use barriers either walls or foliage to push the bees in the sky. Side yards and even some front yards in areas with large lots could be used without issue.