The rules in Ontario

A retired teacher goes to a farm auction in April and comes home with a bargain. Two old hives, a stack of boxes, frames full of dark comb, even a smoker. Forty dollars for the lot. He sets them up at the edge of his property, about fifteen metres from his neighbour's fence, and orders his bees. Before a single bee arrives, he has already run into three of the rules in this lecture.

Beekeeping in Ontario is governed by a provincial law called the Bees Act, and a regulation made under it. The Ontario Apiary Program, part of the provincial agriculture ministry, runs it. Most of the rules exist for one reason. Bee diseases spread from colony to colony, and one careless beekeeper can put every hive for kilometres around at risk. The rules protect your bees, and everyone else's.

Rule one. Register before you get bees. No one can be a beekeeper in Ontario without a certificate of registration from the Provincial Apiarist. Registration is free. If you keep fewer than fifty colonies, your certificate lasts three calendar years. You can register online, through the ministry's beekeeper portal, or on a paper form.

The form asks for your name and address, where each of your bee yards will be, the landowner's name and phone number if the land isn't yours, and how many hives you will keep in each yard.

What about equipment without bees? The ministry's registration page says anyone who owns or possesses honey bees or used beekeeping equipment should register, while the regulation itself exempts people who have equipment but no bees. My advice is simple. Register. It's free, it takes a few minutes, and it connects you to the inspection program. Brand new equipment on its own doesn't require registration.

Rule two. Keep your distance. You cannot place hives within thirty metres of a property line that borders land used as a home, a community centre, a public park, or another place where people gather. And you cannot keep hives with bees in them within ten metres of a highway. The law lists no exceptions for fences or hedges.

On a typical city lot, that thirty metre rule is the one that stops people. So measure before you buy anything. Walk out to where you picture your hives and measure to every property line that touches a neighbour's house or yard. If you can't meet it at home, many beekeepers keep their hives on a farm or a friend's rural property, with the owner's permission.

Rule three. Movable frames only. In Ontario, bees must be kept in hives with movable frames, so that every comb can be lifted out and inspected for disease. That is why nearly every Ontario beginner uses the standard Langstroth hive, and it is the hive this course teaches.

Rule four. Put up a sign. Every bee yard needs a sign showing the beekeeper's name and address, at least twenty four centimetres high and fifty centimetres wide, easy to read. If a neighbour, a firefighter or an inspector comes across your hives, they know whose they are.

Rule five. Report disease, right away. If you find American foulbrood, European foulbrood, small hive beetle, or Varroa mites at high levels, you must report it to the Apiary Program immediately. Hiding it is an offence. That can sound frightening, but inspectors are there to help you stop a problem before it spreads, and later in this course you will learn to recognise every one of these.

Rule six. Permits for selling, giving away and moving bees. You need an inspector's permit to sell or give away live bees or used beekeeping equipment, and the seller's yard is inspected first. So when you buy bees, ask the seller to show you their permit. When you buy used equipment, make sure it comes from an inspected yard.

Bees or used equipment coming into Ontario from anywhere else need a provincial permit too. And packages of bees from the United States are not allowed into Canada at all.

Rule seven. Inspectors can visit. An apiary inspector may enter any place where bees or equipment are kept, other than your home, between sunrise and sunset. They can take samples, and they can order treatment, or in serious cases the destruction of hives. If you disagree with an order, you have five days to appeal it.

Break these rules and the fines can reach two thousand dollars for a first offence, and five thousand after that. But the real cost of ignoring them is usually a sick bee yard.

Now, local rules. The provincial rules apply everywhere in Ontario, but your city or township may have zoning or animal bylaws of its own. In twenty seventeen, Toronto's city staff concluded that honey bees are not prohibited there and that the provincial rules were enough. Other municipalities differ. Before you buy bees, call your municipality and ask.

One more thing to know. The Bees Act is scheduled to be repealed, on a date the government has not yet named. It is still in force today. Check the ministry's website before you start, in case the rules have changed.

Back to our teacher at the auction. Let's change one fact. Suppose that old equipment had come from a seller with a permit, whose yard had just been inspected. That changes a great deal. The spores of American foulbrood can survive in old equipment for decades, up to seventy years. An inspection is how you know you aren't carrying that into your yard. Now he only has to register, and move his hives back from his neighbour's line.

The mistake beginners make is buying bees or old equipment first, and learning the rules afterwards. Do it the other way around.

Here is the rule, in one breath. Register for free before you get bees, keep your hives thirty metres from neighbouring homes and parks and ten metres from highways, use movable frames, post your sign, buy only from inspected yards, and report disease right away.

Next, the question everyone asks: what does all this cost, and when do you have to start?