{"id":12321,"date":"2018-03-02T02:25:36","date_gmt":"2018-03-02T07:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=12321"},"modified":"2018-03-02T02:25:36","modified_gmt":"2018-03-02T07:25:36","slug":"brick-lobbying-against-proposed-n-j-backyard-beekeeping-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2018\/03\/brick-lobbying-against-proposed-n-j-backyard-beekeeping-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Brick Lobbying Against Proposed N.J. Backyard Beekeeping Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_12322\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/34222241173_3db9e36ef5_k.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12322\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12322\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/34222241173_3db9e36ef5_k-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"A beekeeper tends to his hive. (Credit: COD Newsroom\/ Flickr)\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/34222241173_3db9e36ef5_k-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/34222241173_3db9e36ef5_k-400x267.jpg 400w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/34222241173_3db9e36ef5_k-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/34222241173_3db9e36ef5_k-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/34222241173_3db9e36ef5_k-640x427.jpg 640w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/34222241173_3db9e36ef5_k-681x454.jpg 681w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/34222241173_3db9e36ef5_k.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-12322\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A beekeeper tends to his hive. (Credit: COD Newsroom\/ Flickr)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Brick Township council members this week unanimously passed a resolution calling on the state legislature to reject a proposed regulation that they say would be unfriendly to residents who keep up bee hives as a hobby.<\/p>\n<p>The proposal by the state Department of Agriculture would require anyone who maintains a bee hive to reside on a property more than a quarter-acre in size. And the township would be obligated under the law to enforce the regulation and issue fines for violations. Hives built before 2015 would be exempt from the land use portion of the law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne out of every three bites of every piece of food we eat is a result of pollination,\u201d said Councilwoman Lisa Crate, who introduced the resolution, citing statistics that show a worrisome decrease in the number of bees that pollinate crops and other flora.<\/p>\n<p>John Zingis, a Brick resident, is an amateur beekeeper whose hive could be affected by the law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBees are very docile, they don\u2019t bother anybody, and my neighbors\u2019 flowers are doing very well,\u201d said Zingis. \u201cThey are beneficial insects that are in decline and need our support.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More than 30 towns across New Jersey have come out against the regulation, which also ban beekeepers from owning more than two hives, which are typically 18-inch by 18-inch box-style structures. Moreover, the regulation would require six foot tall walls \u2013 a solid wall, fence or \u201cdense\u201d vegetation \u2013 around a property where a hive is located.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.pbs.org\/viralplayer\/3007598041\/\" width=\"512\" height=\"376\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cNew Jersey is the home of many gardeners who, like many commercial farmers, depend on the pollination of crops,\u201d said Crate.<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Agriculture has said no incident in particular spurred the regulatory proposal, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.northjersey.com\/story\/news\/state\/2018\/01\/09\/beekeepers-protest-proposed-state-regulations-impacting-backyard-hives\/1014222001\/\">NorthJersey.com reported<\/a> a few incidents in the northern portion of the state where bees encroached on a neighboring property. Still, beekeepers say, honeybees are not aggressive and are not likely to sting a human being like a wasp or yellow-jacket.<\/p>\n<p>Brick has been a leader in promoting pollination of plants and the protection of beneficial insects. Last year, the township approved an Eagle Scout project that resulted in the construction of a \u201cMonarch Mountain\u201d at Windward Beach Park to lure butterflies.<\/p>\n<p>Besides the end of beekeeping as a hobby for residents, the regulations would also cost taxpayers, officials fear.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaking the town have the burden of managing whatever the regulations are would an issue, plus the cost to the taxpayers of having to do that,\u201d Crate said.<\/p>\n<p>Public comment on the proposed regulations ended Jan. 19.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fb-share-button fcbkbttn_large_button \" data-href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2018\/03\/brick-lobbying-against-proposed-n-j-backyard-beekeeping-rules\/\" data-type=\"button_count\" data-size=\"large\"><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brick Township council members this week unanimously passed a resolution calling on the state legislature to reject a proposed regulation that they say would be unfriendly to residents who keep up bee hives as a hobby. The proposal by the state Department of Agriculture would require anyone who maintains a bee hive to reside on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[3246,3245,24,3247,2737],"class_list":["post-12321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-bee-hive","tag-beekeeping","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-department-of-agriculture","tag-regulations"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/34222241173_3db9e36ef5_k.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-3cJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}