Personally I'm enraged that some people keep bees and don't think it's a big deal that their hives are infested with Small Hive Beetle or infected with American Foul Brood.

In my state, the only treatment for AFB has been burning the hive, and quickly. (The recent approval of Tylosin may change this). Yet some beekeepers think it's none of the government's business (nor mine) that they choose to keep dirty hives and infect/infest the rest of the hives in the county.

It's a big country, but we need to get along without hurting each other. If people could be trusted to keep their bees healthy and problem free, we wouldn't need inspectors, inspections or fees.

Your chief apiary inspector is one of the finest guys in the country. He's friendly, helpful, and knows more about bees than anyone else I know.

Instead of treating him as if he's a revenuer and you're a bootlegger, drop your attitude and give them a chance.

The government interferes with our lives a lot, when it comes to disease prevention, etc.

This is no different, and it's not a bad thing.

And this is coming from a guy who normally believes that any government intrusion is a bad thing.

Merry Christmas.

Every state sets their own bee laws and Florida is known to have some of the toughest in the union. Alternatively, you could work to repeal some of the Florida bee laws you disagree with [that's most likely to be like pis_ing against the wind for all the reasons ccrb1 stated].
Honeybees are considered livestock and as such, are certainly going to be controlled/inspected/licensed by some government entity (it's what keeps things like mad cow disease from getting out of control).
Ain't nuthing free nowadays.

When I went to bee class, the teacher was mentioning about a country, not sure anymore, Australia or new Zealand, they have a law in place, that each bee keeper can have a visit at the closest bee yard in the area for hive inspection, [you check his, he checks yours]
This type of inspection is working very well and they have the least amount of diseases.
Konrad

In general registration actually a great deal here. The $5 apiary registration in Ohio get's your hives inspected by a trained and usually experienced beekeeper. Quite a bargin to get 10+ hives (and sometimes as many as 70 in my case) inspected. Of course you can opt out of the inspection in Ohio unless you sell bees or used equipment and save the taxpayers some money.

http://www.beesource.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=004259

I can feel for you!, most of us do.
You're a well respected citizen of USA
It's just a shame that it has to come this way.
I think it has to do with population increase and more
criminals live amongst us....tooo bad!

Konrad

[Oh no...wait... that was an 'Outter Limits' episode...]

We have had an amazingly mild winter so far, which I have probably just jinxed. Here is a close up pic I took of some bee activity in early January.

Here's a pic from the same day of all of the hives. You can see the solar charger I've mentioned in prior posts.

narcnh

I would leave it alone. If they are doing fine, then let them be. Though if it were me, and only because I have bees, I would be setting swarm traps every spring to hope I could get some of the bees to take up residence. This would not affect the bees in the tree.

If the tree ever looks like it's going to fall down, you might want to enlist a beekeepr to see if you can get them into a box. As long as they are undisturbed, enjoy them as they are. They are usually better off without our interference.

I can't have a hive at all in my garden - I can't even get a permit because permits aren't issued at all.

luckily I do have several varieties of native bees that I encourage - the blue banded bee and several stingless varieties.

Only the stingless varieties are hive producers, but to collect the honey you have to kill the hive and for one or two cups of wild native honey I really don't think killing the hive is the right way to go - I get too many other benefits from the pollination.

Maybe it's time to declare your independance from the USA - lots of precedents in the past, but it may start a bee keepers war :-)

cheers from paradisi at Dicky Beach on the Sunshine coast in australia