Content
- 1 Current federal law on beekeeping
- 1.1 Law No. 112-FZ “On personal subsidiary plots”
- 1.2 Document of the Main Directorate of Veterinary Medicine of the USSR Ministry of Agriculture “Veterinary and sanitary rules for keeping bees” dated December 15, 1976
- 1.3 Instruction “On measures to prevent and eliminate diseases, poisonings and major pests of bees” No. 13-4-2/1362, approved on August 17, 1998
- 2 Comments, questions and clarifications to the Federal Law on beekeeping
- 3 How to keep bees in the village
- 4 How to behave if your neighbor keeps bees
- 5 Conclusion
The law on beekeeping should regulate the issues of bee breeding and promote the development of this industry. The provisions of the law determine the basic rules regarding the breeding of honey insects, and also establish the necessary standards for their maintenance in various conditions. The activities of any apiary must comply with the provisions of the law.
Current federal law on beekeeping
There is currently no federal beekeeping law in force. Attempts to pass it were made several years ago, but it did not even pass the first reading. Therefore, beekeeping issues are regulated either by local legislation containing laws on bees, or by documents of various specialized departments.
There are also no special instructions for maintaining bee colonies and organizing beekeeping in populated areas and summer cottages. Currently, three documents are used for these purposes, defining in one form or another the basic principles of keeping bees.
Law No. 112-FZ “On personal subsidiary plots”
It describes the standards that must be observed for keeping bees. However, they are presented not so much as requirements for setting up an apiary, but rather the provisions of which documents should be observed to create it. That is, there are no specifics in them, but there are only references to other laws and orders. Beekeepers will be of little interest to this law and its provisions.
Document of the Main Directorate of Veterinary Medicine of the USSR Ministry of Agriculture “Veterinary and sanitary rules for keeping bees” dated December 15, 1976
Collection of rules and regulations for apiary maintenance. Contains the greatest amount of useful information. It is from this that all the necessary parameters and standards related to:
- equipment and technical equipment of the apiary;
- its location on the ground;
- events held there;
- methods and techniques for monitoring the condition of bees, honey collection, and other processes;
- other beekeeping issues.
Many provisions of these “Rules” were included in the draft federal law “On Beekeeping”.
Instruction “On measures to prevent and eliminate diseases, poisonings and major pests of bees” No. 13-4-2/1362, approved on August 17, 1998
In fact, it repeats a similar document of the USSR State Administration of Veterinary Medicine, adopted in 1991 (which in turn consists of the previously mentioned “Veterinary and Sanitary Rules...”), and describes a number of issues related to the keeping of bees, but with a greater degree of specificity.
In particular, the main points related to the maintenance of apiaries are indicated:
- requirements for their placement and arrangement;
- requirements for keeping honey insects;
- measures to protect apiaries from pathogens;
- measures to combat infectious and invasive diseases, bee poisoning, etc. are described.
Comments, questions and clarifications to the Federal Law on beekeeping
As is easy to see, the provisions on beekeeping, which operate instead of a single federal law, are “spread out” across several documents, which are, in fact, instructions. This has both its positive and negative sides.
The positive thing is that these documents indicate specific parameters and specific actions that must be observed or taken by the beekeeper in order to work with the apiary. The negative thing is that the lack of legal status does not allow the provisions of the rules and instructions to be fully used in possible legal disputes.
The provisions of the listed documents are discussed in more detail below.
Veterinary and sanitary rules for keeping bees
The veterinary and sanitary passport of an apiary is a document that must be present at every apiary, regardless of the form of ownership or its departmental affiliation. That is, even private apiaries should have such a document.
It indicates the full name of the owner of the apiary, his coordinates (address, mail, telephone, etc.), as well as information about the apiary itself. This information includes:
- number of bee colonies;
- assessment of the sanitary condition of the apiary;
- epizootic condition of the apiary;
- list of recommended activities, etc.
Each passport has an expiration date and serial number.
The passport is filled out by the beekeeper himself and signed by the chief veterinarian of the area. You can obtain a passport from the department of veterinary medicine of your district or region.
There you can also get an apiary diary (the so-called beekeeper's diary). It is not a mandatory document, however, it is recommended to keep it in order to better assess the condition of the bees and the effectiveness of their work.
Mandatory documents required for the sale of any beekeeping products are veterinary certificates in forms 1-vet and 2-vet, which are also issued by the regional or district veterinary department. The information contained in them is filled out by a veterinarian on the basis of the apiary’s veterinary and sanitary passport.
To practice apitherapy, you must either obtain a license for medical activities (which is impossible for beekeepers without medical education) or permission to practice traditional medicine. Naturally, the second option is more common, but this requires a healer's diploma.The issuance of healer diplomas is carried out by the “Federal Scientific Clinical and Experimental Center for Traditional Methods of Diagnostics and Treatment” or its local representative offices.
Rules for keeping bees regarding large objects
Apiaries should be located at a distance of at least half a kilometer from the following objects:
- roads and railways;
- sawmills;
- high voltage lines.
The location of apiaries should be at least 5 km from:
- confectionery factories;
- chemical industry enterprises;
- airfields;
- polygons;
- radars;
- TV and radio towers;
- other sources of electromagnetic and microwave radiation.
Restrictions on keeping bees on a personal plot
Apiaries or beehives must be located at a distance of at least 100 m from educational institutions (schools or kindergartens), medical, cultural and other civil structures that are important or are places of concentration of a large number of people.
Veterinary rules do not separate types of terrain (rural, urban, etc.) for compliance with this rule, that is, these rules have the same interpretation for personal plots located both in rural areas and in urban areas.
What are the standards for keeping bees?
Keeping bees requires compliance with certain standards. First of all, this applies to apiaries located within populated areas, since in this case you will have to deal with neighbors. It is possible that not everyone will like living next to an apiary, since the likelihood of bee stings increases significantly. The situation can get to the point where neighbors can even sue the beekeeper because of bee stings.
In order to avoid the legal consequences of such incidents, it is necessary to follow the rules for placing hives in summer cottages. These rules are quite simple to follow, so the likelihood of a negative outcome from all kinds of official actions on the part of neighbors or authorities is minimal.
The basic requirements for standards for keeping bees in the private residential sector relate to two simple rules:
- The distance from the hive to the neighboring area must be at least 10 m.
- The area per bee colony must be at least 100 square meters. m.
To find out if there is a space requirement for one bee colony, it is recommended to check your local beekeeping regulations. This information can be obtained from your local authorities or veterinary service.
How many hives can you keep on a plot in a village?
If regional legislation prescribes that each bee colony has at least 100 square meters. m of plot area, then this requirement should be adhered to. In this case, the calculation of the number of hives is done according to a simple principle:
- Draw a site plan and limit the area where the hives will be placed (at least 10 m from the fence).
- Calculate the area of the remaining plot in square meters. m, which will be the area where the apiary will be located.
- Dividing the resulting area by 100, you get the maximum number of hives.Rounding is done downwards.
If the amount of area is not specified by regional legislation, the maximum number of hives in a populated area cannot exceed 150. Existing legislation does not divide the keeping of bees by type of settlement; an apiary can be located anywhere - in a country house, in a city or village.
At what distance should the apiary be located from residential buildings?
Small apiaries (up to 150 families) can be kept in populated areas, adhering to the provisions set out in veterinary regulations. This means the location of the apiary 100 m from children's and medical institutions or crowded places. Restrictions on the distance to residential buildings also remain unchanged - at least 10 m to the fence.
There are no norms prescribing the location of large apiaries located outside populated areas in the existing rules. It is understood that in this case this distance should be no less than the maximum flight distance of the bee (up to 2.5-3 km).
Rules for breeding bees in a populated area
When placing bees in a populated area, the following provisions should be adhered to:
- the distance between hives should be from 3 to 3.5 m;
- hives are arranged in rows;
- the distance between rows is at least 10 m;
- in front of the hive entrances, you should remove the turf 50 cm forward in their direction and cover the ground with sand;
- Foreign objects and various architectural objects should not be placed on the apiary territory;
- the height of the fences along the perimeter of the site or its part bordering the sites of neighbors must be at least 2 m; fences, dense bushes, various types of hedges, etc. can be used as fencing.
The entrances of the hives are directed towards the plantings intended for honey collection.
What kind of bees can you keep bees in a populated area?
According to the rules for keeping bees on a personal plot, in populated areas it is prohibited to keep bees with aggressive behavior that can cause harm to the population or damage to any types of economic activity.
Paragraph 15 of the “Rules...” prescribes the maintenance of bee breeds that are peace-loving, namely:
- Carpathian;
- Bashkir;
- Caucasian (gray mountain);
- Central Russian.
In addition, according to the rules, you can keep bees of different breeds on your summer cottage.
How to keep bees in the village
The basic rules for keeping bees in a village do not differ from keeping them in any other locality, and they were discussed earlier. The most important requirement is a fence, at least 2 m high, insurmountable to insects.
If all the rules are followed, the law will be on the side of the beekeeper, since there are no other prohibitions on keeping bees.
How to keep your neighbors safe
The main way to protect neighbors from bees has already been outlined earlier - it is necessary to equip the perimeter of the site with a fence or dense hedge at least 2 m high. In the presence of such an obstacle, the bee immediately gains height and flies away for a bribe, without posing a threat to people.
Also, so that bees do not bother neighbors, it is necessary to provide them with everything necessary for life (primarily water) as much as possible, so that they do not search for this in other people's summer cottages.
To provide water to the bees, it is necessary to equip several drinking bowls in the apiary (usually 2 or 3). There is also a separate drinking bowl in which the water is slightly salted (a solution of 0.01% table salt).
Sometimes planting honey plants on the site helps, but this practice is not a panacea, since bees will select nectar from them very quickly.
How to behave if your neighbor keeps bees
If a neighbor keeps bees, then this is more good than bad. Insects, one way or another, will still penetrate the site and do their small but important job there - pollinate plants. Bee stings are a serious problem only for those who are allergic to bee venom.
To protect yourself, you should isolate yourself from your neighbor with a dense hedge or fence at least 2 m high. This should only be done if the neighbor did not do this himself and no other methods (personally contacting the neighbor, complaining to the authorities, etc.) etc.) did not produce results.
To avoid too much attention of insects to your home or area, you should not place objects on the territory that attract bees. These include, first of all, open containers with water, sweets, various drinks, etc.
During summer preparations (mainly jam and compotes), this work should be done in a well-ventilated area, and ventilation openings and windows should be equipped with nets through which insects cannot get to the source of sugar.
Conclusion
At the moment, the law on beekeeping has not yet been adopted, but this does not mean that there are no regulations regulating the keeping of honey insects in populated areas.These norms are set out in three main documents, which everyone can familiarize themselves with at local authorities or find them independently on administrative resources on the Internet. Compliance with these standards will help create a correct legal framework and protect the beekeeper from possible unpleasant consequences.
