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How many beehives are too many in a backyard?

Seven hives' worth of bees in a neighbor's yard created too much buzz for one Naperville resident, whose complaint to city council members has spurred a debate about how many bees are too many for suburban backyards.

An abundance of bees could seem like a bad thing to suburbanites uninitiated in their environmental and agricultural benefits. Just think of screaming kids distressed by stingers, folks mowing lawns attacked by insects from unseen nests, or swarms of bees drawn to the sweet stuff at picnics and cookouts.

Certainly not pleasant.

But each of these worries is based on an inaccurate assumption about honeybees, longtime keepers say. Honeybees don't burrow into the ground to strike when accidentally disturbed by unsuspecting humans. They're peaceful and passive and won't sting repeatedly - once they deploy their sole stinger, they die. And the term “swarming” applies not to a pack of bees all attracted to one spot but to the process by which a hive re-creates itself under a new queen.

The Naperville council members who brought up bee concerns don't want to ban them.

“My grandfather and oldest brother had about 50 hives around Naperville for 50 years,” council member Becky Anderson said, recalling the crop of honey they'd produce on the outskirts of town. “Honeybees are essential for our agriculture. ... I think it's a great hobby.”

Leaders and staff members in the former farming town recognize bees play an important role in pollinating flowers and crops. They want to preserve that role - while respecting resident concerns.

“We do need bees in the area,” said Bill Novack, the city's director of transportation, engineering and development. “It's a matter of having a reasonable number of them.”

Bees, flowers, food

THE GOOD GUY: Honeybees are generally passive and peaceful, they don't burrow underground, and if disturbed, they can only sting once. associated press

One or two hives is a reasonable number for the average hobbyist to keep in a cookie-cutter backyard, said Peter Soltesz of Villa Park, president of the Cook-DuPage Beekeepers Association.

He said each hive can contain 50,000 to 60,000 workers and one queen, but most of the workers remain inside the hive. Beekeepers buy wooden boxes or crates to hold their hives and they're taught in introductory courses to place the hives near a water source and far from property lines.

Inside the hive, bees return with nectar gathered from flowers and turn it into honey. While they're out foraging, bees also pollinate crops including apples, blueberries, cucumbers, pumpkins and raspberries. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says “about one mouthful in three” comes directly or indirectly from honey bee pollination, bringing foods that add “diversity, color and flavor” to the American diet.

“Everything a bee does brings more green to the environment,” said Greg Fischer with Wild Blossom Meadery, who keeps about 60 hives at Morton Arboretum in Lisle to produce honey for sale at the Arboretum's store.

Bee populations, however, have been dwindling because chronic exposure to the chemicals in new types of pesticides is hurting their immune systems and making them susceptible to a pest called the varroa mite.

“It's like a flea on a bee,” Fischer said.

According to a study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the number of managed bee hives has decreased by nearly half since the 1940s, dropping from about 5 million to 2.6 million, also spurred by decreases in the number of farms and the price of honey. Locally, hobbyists and commercial beekeepers report yearly losses of between 35 percent and 45 percent of their hives, Soltesz said.

THE BAD GUY: Behaviors of yellow jacket wasps, such as stinging multiple times or burrowing underground, sometimes mistakenly give honeybees a bad reputation. daily herald file photo

Fewer bees might mean lower risk of stings for suburbanites, but beekeepers say taking that simplistic view underestimates the insect's importance in the food production process.

“If we lost our honeybees, it would have a devastating effect on our food chain,” Soltesz said. “It would totally change life as we know it on the planet. It's a very real concern.”

Limit, not prohibit

While many backyard beekeepers prefer to keep only a couple of hives, Soltesz and Fischer don't think towns should limit them to so few. Good beekeepers, they say, will take care to determine the optimal amount to house on their lots.

“If you put too many hives on a spot, you're not going to get as much honey,” Fischer said. “It's kind of self-regulating.”

Any regulations on beehives should be determined based on lot size or hive distance from the lot line, they say.

Those are all factors Naperville city staff members plan to evaluate as they research regulations the city could impose on beekeeping.

But there's at least one reason the city thinks determining hive numbers by lot size might not make sense: Bees fly far to forage.

“They're not necessarily just concentrating on the one neighbor's yard next door,” Soltesz said. “They're going to fly out in this three-mile radius in search for nectar and pollen and water.”

Still, beekeeping regulations in some places, such as unincorporated Lake County and West Dundee, already take lot size into account.

West Dundee allows up to four hives on lots larger than 10,000 square feet, which is about a quarter-acre.

On smaller lots, two primary hives and two smaller hives are permitted for holders of the village's $10 annual license. Four beekeepers are licensed this year.

Lake County in 2013 relaxed its regulations so beekeeping would be allowed on unincorporated lots smaller than 5 acres. Its regulations start in line with West Dundee's - two primary hives and two smaller hives are allowed on residential lots up to 10,000 square feet. Then as lot size increases, so does the number of allowable hives.

Bartlett could become the next village to relax its beekeeping regulations, as the village board is set to begin consideration today of a move to allow hives on 2-acre lots instead of requiring 10 acres.

  In 2013, Schaumburg created this community bee garden on Plum Grove Road as a way to encourage people interested in keeping bees to do so outside of their yards. Using the bee garden is free with a permit, but keeping bees in a yard requires a $603 special use permit. Bob Chwedyk/bchwedyk@dailyherald.com

Another model of regulation has created community bee gardens in at least two towns: Schaumburg and Hanover Park. Schaumburg allows free use of its bee garden on Plum Grove Road, where four beekeepers are tending to 12 hives. But to keep bees in a residential yard would require a special use permit and a $603 fee.

Hanover Park's designated spot for hives on Army Trail Road has 12 active beekeepers, each operating under a free yearly permit. But the village does not allow beekeeping anywhere other than this village-owned property.

Bartlett also could consider creating a community bee garden, but village staffers would want the effort to be a collaboration with another entity, such as the DuPage County Forest Preserve District, to keep maintenance costs down.

Back in Naperville, city staff members plan to research bee hive regulation options throughout the summer, likely bringing recommendations to the council in August.

Seven hives in one typical backyard is “definitely excessive,” city officials said. But outlawing bees is not the right environmental answer.

“We really do not want to prohibit them entirely. It does reduce the yields on flowers and fruits,” Novack said. “Having bees is a good thing.”

Daily Herald staff writer Erin Hegarty contributed to this report.

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