A proposal to allow non-commercial beekeeping on residential lots of a quarter-acre or more failed to pass muster with the Henry County  Board of Commissioners at its February 4 regular meeting.

  Actually, the no vote pertained to several proposed changes to the county’s animal control ordinance, including mandatory microchipping when reclaiming impounded dogs and cats, and raising the certificate fee for dogs that are classified as dangerous or vicious. But the commissioners got so caught up in the half-hour beekeeping debate that they apparently forgot the other items Animal Care and Control director Gerri Yoder had presented at the start of the discussion.

  Johnny Wilson, who made the motion to pass the resolution, rejected his peers’ concerns over the bees by saying he would rather have them next door to him than some of the animals already allowed under county code. Gary Barham seconded Wilson’s motion for discussions purposed and later voted in favor of it, although he had previously stated that he had concerns about beekeeping in a subdivision. The vote was 4-2 against.

  After the board voted down the motion, Yoder asked if the dog issues could still be addressed since they had not even been discussed. Board chair June Wood, who reacted as if she had forgotten that was even part of the resolution, simply said, “The motion has failed. You’ll need to bring that back to us again.”

  Multiple commissioners expressed concerns about children walking in neighborhoods where bees are being kept, but two local experts addressed the board on the issue and said that bees cannot be contained because they will typically circulate five or six miles from where they live. Bees are not naturally aggressive and only respond that way to humans when provoked, they added, and the best way to protect a community is by having trained beekeepers maintaining their stocks appropriately.

  The term suggested in the resolution was “backyard beekeeping,” which means hobbyists in a residential zoning could keep a limited number of hives for personal use, not for selling honey to the public.

  Yoder said that when researching the matter, she was “stunned” at the number of municipalities, many of them more densely populated than Henry County, which already have urban beekeeping ordinances. “We didn’t try to reinvent the wheel on this,” she said.

  Yoder added that the millennial demand for so-called “farm-to-table” food options as well as conditions which have caused bees to die off in recent years in exceptionally high numbers are driving the demand for beekeeping growth.

  During the discussion, the commissioners noted that the existing “backyard chicken” provisions in the ordinance require at least a half-acre, while this proposal would have allowed beekeeping on quarter-acre lots. One of the bee experts said that changing the limit to a half-acre would not have much of an effect because of the bees’ foraging nature.

  Vivian Thomas, who cited her own rural upbringing and said she personally would not be uncomfortable around bees, suggested that there be increased efforts to educate the community about it. Wood, Dee Clemmons and Bruce Holmes all stated that they were opposed to this activity in residential subdivisions.

  The suggested ordinance changes which were totally overlooked by the board included broadening the definition of “animal under restraint” and disallowing the use of retractable leashes for pets that are not on an owner’s property. Yoder said that some leashes extend to 30 feet and it is easy for two animals to get tangled up in them while walking in their neighborhoods with their owners.

  A change to the “reclamation” part of the code was suggested to include the mandatory microchipping of all dogs and cats that are reclaimed from the shelter after being impounded. The section titled “requirements for possessing a vicious or dangerous dog” would have been amended to include the mandatory sterilization (spay/ neuter) of any dog that has been classified by the ACC as “dangerous” or “vicious.” Additionally, the annual certificate fee for a dog classified as “dangerous” would be raised from $100 to $500 and the annual certificate for “vicious” raised from $100 to $1,000.

  The current animal control ordinance has not been updated since 2012.