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CELINA - Celina may soon become a haven for honeybees, allowing it to contribute to a reportedly rich history of beekeeping in Ohio that has shaped the modern practice worldwide.
At this week's regular meeting, city council members unanimously passed first reading of legislation authorizing and regulating beekeeping within city limits. The vote came after the subject was explored and debated at length over the last few years.
"It seems like this will be good for the community. That's my belief, and it seems like this will be good for people in a sense of freedom that it is an extra source of money or honey, so there are lots of good opportunities here," councilor Thomas Sanford declared.
Sanford noted that councilors spent a good amount of time discussing the matter and researching beekeeping ordinances in other municipalities in Ohio.
"It's very regulated," Sanford said about the city's beekeeping policy at hand. "We talked to Stowe, Lakewood and Norwood. They all have had bee ordinances. I've talked to them and have emails from them, very high reports that they've had very low complaints about anything."
Mayor Jeff Hazel confirmed that city officials reached out to the City of Defiance as well to learn about its legal framework for urban, or residential beekeeping.
According to the city's ordinance, domestic strains of honeybees have been selectively bred for desirable traits, including gentleness, honey production, tendency not to swarm and non-aggressive behavior, characteristics which are desirable to foster and maintain.
Gentle strains of honeybees, the legislation asserts, can be maintained within populated areas in reasonable densities without causing a nuisance - if the bees are properly located and carefully managed.
"I'm not intimidated by bees," councilman Eric Clausen said. "I think they're a good thing for the community when it comes to people with gardens, with flowers, different things. I have a lot of friends and family that all have beehives, and it's always a positive thing when it's run positively."
Sanford gave a quick rundown of the policy that would take effect May 27 should the legislation be given the go-ahead on final reading.
"Principal use is to be a single-family dwelling. No more than two hives on less than 1 acre," he said. "The beehive shall face away from the property line of the neighbors, too, and a supply of fresh water shall be maintained so that they aren't going elsewhere into other people's areas trying to get to their water source."
The hives are to be inspected yearly by county or state inspectors, Sanford continued.
"There are setbacks here, too, so (the beehive) won't be any closer than 10 feet to any lot line, 25 feet to any residential structure, 30 feet from any public sidewalk or roadway," he said. "We definitely don't want passersby to have any kind of issues."
In each instance where a colony - hive, bees, combs, brood and equipment - is kept less than 25 feet from a property line of the lot upon which the apiary is located, as measured from the nearest point oh the hive to the property line, the beekeeper shall establish a flyway barrier at least 6-feet high.
The flyway barrier may comprise a wall, fence, dense vegetation or a combination thereof such that bees will fly over rather than through the material to reach the colony between the hives and the adjacent lots.
Furthermore, the legislation would set up a permitting process. Each beekeeper must first obtain a zoning permit from the city prior to engaging in beekeeping activity, according to the legislation.
Councilors agreed that any current active beehive would not be grandfathered. The beekeeper would have to obtain a permit just like anyone else desiring to host a hive. No fee would be involved in the process.
At the recommendation of councilman Joe Wolfe, councilors agreed to amend the legislation to add a clause: If a beekeeping applicant is a tenant, both the tenant and his or her landlord must sign the permit.
City officials also touched on compliance and enforcement.
"If it becomes a problem to monitor for the city, then I would think we would come back to this permitting process, and we would amend it to add a fee so that our costs are covered, that the taxpayers' costs are covered, and we're not paying for people that are poor managers of beehives," Clausen said.
Hazel pointed out that the city's beekeeping policy would fall underneath the purview of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections.
"And obviously we're an agriculture community, so the department of ag is in Celina, Mercer County, every week," he said.
Second reading of the legislation is scheduled for the next council meeting at 7 p.m. April 13 in council chambers on the second floor of the city administration building.
Honeybees can serve as a source of income. According to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, Ohio produced over 1.3 million pounds of honey, averaging 65 pounds per colony, in 2023.
They're also crucial to the food supply, pollinating more than 100 of the crops people eat, including nuts, vegetables, berries, citrus and melons. Scientists said a combination of parasites, pesticides, starvation and climate change keep causing large die-offs.
"The health of pollinators is directly linked to food security," the Ohio State Beekeepers Association said in an article. "Pollination services are a core component of global agricultural production, valued at over $125 billion annually. In the U.S., the value of pollination services is estimated to be $20-30 billion annually. In Ohio the value of honey bees' pollination of crops below is estimated at $3.875 billion as of data collected in
2019-2020 census."
Bees and other pollinators have been on the decline for years, and experts blame a combination of factors: insecticides, parasites, disease, climate change and lack of a diverse food supply. A significant part of the human diet comes from plants pollinated by bees - not just honeybees, but hundreds of species of lesser-known wild bees, many of which are endangered.
Generally, most bees are heat-tolerant, but as the climate warms, some experts think their ability to fend off disease and gather food might become harder. And habitat loss, increased use of pesticides, diseases and lack of forage for both managed and wild bees are all listed as potential contributors to the global decline of bees and other pollinators.
Earlier in 2025, preliminary results from the annual U.S. Beekeeping Survey found that beekeepers lost almost 56% of their managed colonies, the highest loss since the survey started in 2010.
In 2018, the U.N. General Assembly sponsored the first "World Bee Day" to bring attention to the bees' plight. Steps as small as planting a pollinator garden or buying raw honey from local farmers were encouraged.
May 20 was chosen for "World Bee Day" to coincide with the birthday of Anton Janša, an 18th-century pioneer in modern beekeeping techniques in his native Slovenia.
- The Associated Press contributed to this article.
