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Lowell Planning Commission wants to regulate beekeeping in neighborhoods

The City of Lowell proposed banning beekeeping in residential neighborhoods after they say they’ve received complaints from residents.

LOWELL, Ark. — There was a buzzing discussion at Monday (June 21) night’s Lowell Planning Commission meeting. The city proposed banning beekeeping in residential neighborhoods.   

Honeybees are Arkansas’ state insect.  

“I think banning bees inside city limits would not be good,” Trent Sullivan said. 

The City of Lowell proposed banning beekeeping in residential neighborhoods at last night’s planning commission meeting after they say they’ve received complaints from residents.  

“People don’t realize the bees help support everything. If you’ve got flowers, you’ve got a garden. They pollinate everything. Trees shrubs everything, so if we don’t have bees, I think it would be a determent to people who have those things,” he said. 

Trent Sullivan has been beekeeping since May because they thought it would be a fun hobby and would help with their vegetable garden. He thinks regulations for beekeeping would be a good idea.  

“Bees will fly up to a three-mile radius around their hives, so even if there aren’t bees in Lowell, in the city limits, there are still going to be bees coming in, just not as many,” he said.   

The Lowell Planning Commission says they do not want to ban beekeeping but instead ask the city council to develop regulations for people to keep bees in residential neighborhoods responsibly. In Arkansas, if you have a beehive, you are required to register it with the Department of Agriculture, but Mark Stoll says they do not regulate the number of hives people have, and they leave those decisions up to cites.  

“Having managed hives is always a plus for pollination in the area. Anytime you take bees out of an area, it’s going to create a natural funnel for feral colonies and native pollinators who come in because they are leaving a food source, so something is going to come and pollinate it,” Stoll said. 

The Arkansas Department of Agriculture says there are 365 registered bee colonies in Washington and 400 in Benton county. If you have a colony that isn’t registered, they ask you to follow this link to register them. 

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