After queen bee moves too close to daycare, city considers beekeeping ordinance

(WOWT)
Published: Jun. 12, 2017 at 8:56 PM CDT
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A daycare provider in Council Bluffs is concerned about the sting of a neighbor's hobby. The city has no ordinance on beekeeping, but that may change soon.

The neighbor's honey making is a hobby Kelly Tompkins hopes doesn't stick around.

"What sounded like an air conditioner and we looked up and it was the swarm of bees leaving their colony there,” she told 6 On Your Side.

For several hours honey bees swarmed to her tree above children at her daycare – luckily no children were stung.

"Yes, they were scary,” one kid said.

The neighbor declined comment, but outside Council Bluffs a beekeeper with Loess Hills Honey Took our camera up close to a hive. Chris Ruhaak told WOWT’s Mike McKnight if the queen bee decides to leave the hive, she could take up to 25,000 worker bees with her.

Ruhaak says the scary sound doesn't mean the swarm is a threat.

"Honey bees are typically not aggressive,” he said.

The Council Bluffs Health Department Director Donn Dierks says a proposed ordinance on beekeeping in the city will be sent to council members.

"More and more people want to get into making their own honey and that sort of thing. Which is great but at the same time we have to protect other residents of the public who don't want to entertain that idea,” said Dierks.

Tompkins wonders how city rules on beekeeping will be enforced.

"The children here and other neighborhood kids who are allergic and it’s a very concerning,” she said.

The experienced bee keeper says for those who enjoy the hobby or make money on honey, a city ordinance shouldn't sting.

"It’s important to have some of those rules in place and they take it seriously,” Ruhaak told WOWT 6 News.

Council Bluffs has rules for raising animals, but bees can't be corralled to keep neighbors safe so developing an ordinance fair to all has the city's health director busy as, well, a bee.