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Golden: Hive outbreak would bee-hoove city
By Stacie Oulton, Denver Post Staff Writer
Oct. 19 - GOLDEN - While some cities pass laws to rid themselves of exotic pets,
such as spiders and snakes, Golden wants to open its doors to an unusual hobby:
beekeeping.
The city is considering an ordinance that would allow beekeepers to house beehives in
the backyard of any suburban subdivision.
"We're going to make them legal,'' said City Manager Mike Bestor. "The best
way to have appropriate pollinating going on - during the appropriate hours of course - is
to have hobby beekeepers.''
The move is really an effort to save the backyard gardener, whose fruit-bearing trees
and bushes may not produce without the oft-maligned honey bee. With an abundance of bees
comes a fruitful garden.
"Even in the city, you have a large population of home gardens. Without the honey
bees there, you can't grow apples, peaches, raspberries or strawberries,'' said Tom
Theobald, a member of the Colorado Beekeepers Association.
Bestor said the city sees a benefit in that.
Several cities have prohibited the ownership of exotic pets such as boa constrictors
and other tropical inhabitants. But when it comes to bees, Theobald said he knows of only
a couple of Colorado cities that have outlawed beekeeping in the city limits.
Most haven't said anything about the honey bee, and even Denver still has a sprinkling
of beehives in neighborhood backyards, he said. But this is the first instance he knows of
where a city is actively courting bees in non-agricultural areas.
"Golden's approach may serve as a model,'' Theobald said. "I think it's
positive.''
Dick Sargent, who lives in a Golden neighborhood at the base of Lookout Mountain,
prompted the move. Sargent has had more than a dozen hives for 20 years in his backyard,
but when a newcomer bought an undeveloped parcel next door, the neighbor told Sargent the
bees would have to go.
The newcomer is gone, and the bees are staying, he said.
"This would be known as the city of bees,'' Sargent said of his push to get the
new law on Golden's books.
Helping out the local gardens and flower beds with nearby hives is particularly
important these days because the native, wild bee population has nearly disappeared in
recent years - dropping by as much as 90 percent, Theobald said. Those bees in the wild
were long responsible for the suburban green thumb.
Golden's proposed law, which is still in the drafting stage, probably will regulate the
beehives somewhat by requiring them to be a certain number of feet away from lot lines.
Hives also might have to face a certain direction.
Copyright 1999 the Denver Post. Reprinted with permission.
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