There is a lot of evidence of bee-keeping out here in rural Utah. You see a lot of mobile beehives parked around certain farms, the bees pollinating the plants; locally produced honey is available for sale *everywhere.* Heck, the local print shop in Tremonton has a section among the printer paper and envelopes for one brand of locally produced honey products. So bees are important.
But bees are also a pest. You get a beehive in your house, you want it *gone.* There are two approaches to that:
1) Kill it. Either hire someone or wrap yourself in bubblewrap and hose the hive down with Raid; or, if you’re feeling frisky and are none too damn bright, burn it with fire.
2) Call a local beekeeper. They are often looking to expand their “work force,” especially with the collapse in bee populations over the last couple decades. Bee keepers will often come and, for free, remove the hives.
Option #2 is obviously the preferred one. You win… you get rid of the problem for free. The bee keeper wins – they get a new presumably healthy hive for little cost. The bees win…. they ain’t dead. So, who would possibly have a problem with this setup?
Oh, look, it’s a politician.
Rep. Theresa “Terry” Meza (D.) of Irving, Texas has authored House Bill 4212 that would make the process of bee removal illegal. Unless of course the person removing the bees has undergone 160 hours of both class room and field training in beekeeping and removals. That amounts to over 3 college semester classes worth of training! A normal college class of 3 semester credit hours is around 45-48 contact hours. This nonsense will make almost all bee keeping removal services illegal overnight! If this bill passes, nobody will be able to legally remove and relocate bees after January 1, 2020 until after they go through 160 hours of training and licensing.
There is currently no agency, organization or authority that is set up to train such licensed bee removers in Texas. The legislation would place licensing and training specifics under the authority of the Texas Department of Agriculture.
Additionally, the “licensed” bee remover must obtain $600,000 in liability insurance. If that wasn’t enough, the bee remover must also have $300,000 in workman’s comp before being able to legally remove bees. Oh and you have to pay a yearly licensing fee and whatever fees are associated with your 160 hours of classroom and field training.
Brilliant! Something humans have been doing for thousands of years, now made prohibitively expensive. *Why* these changes are desired does not seem to be in the text of the bill.
https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/86R/billtext/pdf/HB04212I.pdf
