Keeper hopes to take some sting out of bee ordinance
For 20 years, retiree Jim Stein has kept honeybees at his Mt. Royal Boulevard home in Shaler.
"Everybody wants to continue to learn and to have a challenge. Bees are a fascinating thing to study," said Stein, 67.
Now some of his bees could be getting the boot.
A proposed township ordinance could force Stein, president of the Beaver Valley Area Beekeepers Association, to slash from 23 to six the number of colonies he keeps on his three-acre lot.
Sparked by a neighbor's complaint about another keeper's bees, the Shaler proposal would require that colonies be registered with the township and limit the number of colonies to one per half-acre.
The restriction would not apply on tracts of 10 acres or more, or on any size parcel where hives are at least 200 feet away from all property lines. Violators could face fines of up to $600 a day.
Earlier this year, Marshall officials forced master beekeeper Bob Jenereski to remove more than a dozen hives from his 1-acre lot.
The trend is disturbing, bee experts and agricultural officials say. Honeybee pollination is worth nearly $60 million annually to the state's economy. Parasites and disease have combined to reduce the number of managed bee colonies in the state from about 80,000 in 1983 to about 39,000 today.
"There is a real need for more beekeepers. There is not enough bees to meet that pollination demand," said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, an apiary specialist with the state Department of Agriculture.
Shaler First Ward Commissioner Ed Duss said the township drafted its ordinance after a resident of his ward complained earlier this year that a neighbor's bees were congregating at the family pool. The resident's children are allergic to bees. The houses in question were only 20 feet apart, Duss said.
The bees since have been removed, township Manager Tim Rogers said. He would not identify the beekeeper.
"It's too close to the residents," Duss said. "We don't want children who are allergic to that or something like that to be harmed."
But a beekeeping ordinance might not fix the problem, vanEngelsdorp said.
"The managed bees tend to be gentler and bred for disease prevention. If there's no bees there, then wild bee colonies can move into the area, and they're more problematic," he said.
Fears over being stung frequently drive ordinances such as Shaler's, but wasps, not honeybees, are frequently to blame for stings, vanEngelsdorp said.
When honeybees leave their hives -- traveling within a three-mile radius -- they're looking for nectar and pollen, not to sting people, Stein said. The only way to get stung is to step on one, he said.
"If a honeybee stings you, they die. They have to have a very good reason to sting you," he said.
Herb Grubic has lived next to Stein and his bees for 10 years and said they've never been a problem.
"They've never bothered me, they've never bothered my children and they've never bothered my wife," he said. "The bees come down and eat the clover in my yard whenever my son or I don't cut the grass."
Stein said beekeeping regulations should be set at the state level.
"If we're going to be regulated, I'd rather it be through the state and have it so we have uniform rules and regulations on having beehives in the state of Pennsylvania," he said.
Shaler commissioners will consider the ordinance when they meet at 7 p.m. Sept. 12 at the municipal building, 300 Wetzel Road.
