M. Alex Urban stands next to hives of bees at a co-worker’s house in the community of Rocky Fork — between Cross Lanes and Sissonville — on Feb. 3, 2025.
Bees fly in and out of a hive at M. Alex Urban’s co-worker’s house in the community of Rocky Fork — between Cross Lanes and Sissonville — on Feb. 3, 2025.
A sign on a tree lets people know about the bee hives at M. Alex Urban’s co-worker’s house in the community of Rocky Fork — between Cross Lanes and Sissonville — on Feb. 3, 2025.
M. Alex Urban stands next to hives of bees at a co-worker’s house in the community of Rocky Fork — between Cross Lanes and Sissonville — on Feb. 3, 2025.
CHRIS DORST | Gazette-Mail
To bee or not to bee in South ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä?
That is the question presented to West Virginia’s Intermediate Court of Appeals. It stems from a lawsuit that South ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä resident M. Alex Urban filed in August 2023 to keep bees in his backyard.
Urban started beekeeping in high school, after finding a hive smoker in his grandmother’s Sissonville basement. He learned that her father had kept bees.
Bee permits
In June 2022, Urban moved to South ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä and asked the city about getting a permit to keep bees in his backyard.
At the time, the city had a permit process for keeping bees. The process detailed regulations about where they could be kept. Urban’s backyard, enclosed by a six-foot-high fence, fit the regulations.
Earlier Gazette-Mail reporting found that the city has never approved a permit for bees.
Urban filed suit in August 2023, asking a court to find that either honeybees couldn’t be regulated by South ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä and/or that the permitting process was “arbitrary and capricious.â€
Urban argued that his property was zoned for residential agriculture, meaning he could use it for any form of agriculture except keeping “livestock and poultry.†He argued that bees are not considered livestock under state code.
About a week later, the South ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä City Council amended the relevant ordinance, removing the permit option and banning beekeeping altogether.
Bees fly in and out of a hive at M. Alex Urban’s co-worker’s house in the community of Rocky Fork — between Cross Lanes and Sissonville — on Feb. 3, 2025.
CHRIS DORST | Gazette-Mail
Michael Moore, attorney for the city of South ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä, explained that the city is not against bees, in general. Instead, with South ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä having many small lots, the City Council is concerned about people who are allergic to bees and possible predators that beekeeping could attract.
Urban, who is allergic to bees himself, acknowledged that bees have a potential to harm but can be kept safely, if the state’s beekeeping regulations are followed. For example, beekeepers have to register their hives with the state government, be willing to undergo state inspections and not get into a hive if other people are around.
Bee industry
Urban reached out to the West Virginia Department of Agriculture, and a representative from the agency explained to city officials that, in the WVDA’S point of view, banning beekeeping violates West Virginia’s Right to Farm provisions in state code.
According to Kent Leonhardt, West Virginia’s agriculture commissioner, the WVDA intervening isn’t a matter of government overreach. He’s trying to protect the beekeeping industry, which has increased 20% since he took office in 2016, he said.
“The whole thing never made a whole lot of sense to me,†Leonhardt said. “[If] somebody’s got a hive of honeybees, whether it’s inside the city limits or outside the city limits, those bees are coming to the city.â€
A sign on a tree lets people know about the bee hives at M. Alex Urban’s co-worker’s house in the community of Rocky Fork — between Cross Lanes and Sissonville — on Feb. 3, 2025.
CHRIS DORST | Gazette-Mail
In January, Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Tera Salango ruled in favor of Urban and the WVDA, overturning the city’s ordinance.
Salango’s order says that, while municipalities can regulate the keeping of animals, bees aren’t considered animals under state law. “Animal†is not defined in that specific law, but Salango ruled that, throughout state code, the word “animal†does not include insects.
She also ruled that a “total ban on beekeeping†conflicts with the West Virginia Apiary Act, which gives the authority to regulate bees and beekeeping to the commissioner of agriculture.
Bee appeal
South ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä disagrees with Salango’s findings and has filed an appeal, arguing that Salango erred in nine ways.
In their appeal, the city argued that the “common, ordinary and accepted meaning†of “animal†includes bees and that the WVDA’s website refers to bees as animals. Therefore, South ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä should be able to regulate them.
A publication revised in 2019 on the WVDA’s website says, “Allowing animals like honeybees to become infected with viruses and parasites that cripple them is inhumane.â€
The city also argues that the Apiary Act applies to “agricultural land,†not a city lot. Therefore, the WVDA doesn’t have authority over beekeeping on non-agricultural land; South ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä does.
Bee history
Although Salango ruled in his favor, Urban isn’t ready to keep bees in the city again until the case is resolved. Under South ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä’s code, the penalty for breaking the ordinance is a fine up to $500, imprisonment up to 30 days or both.
Meanwhile, he’s helping a paralegal keep three hives in a spacious subdivision in the community of Rocky Fork, between Cross Lanes and Sissonville. Last year, the hives produced 12 gallons of honey.
“It’s one of these things that, in my mind, helps link us to our past and how we’re going to be going into the future,†he said. “We, as a species, have been managing and keeping bees for thousands of years.â€
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