Bees are creating more than just a buzz for two Quispamsis residents and they are asking the town for help.
Jocelyn Smith and Joni Moore say bee droppings have taken over their property on Cedar Grove Drive.
“You’re probably like us and never really stopped to consider that bees poop,” Smith told town council Tuesday night.
The yellow globs, which range from circular to linear in shape, are sticky and difficult to remove from surfaces, she said.
Smith said the issue affects their enjoyment of the outdoors, and their neighbours have a similar view on the issue.
“It really lands on everything,” she said of the droppings. “I’ve had it on my face, in my hair, on my clothes, siding, windows, doors. Anything you can think of that’s in our yard has bee poop on it.”
The issue, Smith said, appears to stem from a nearby property on Pettingill Road that has several backyard beehives.
“We’re not talking about 100 bees here or 1,000 bees. I’m actually talking about hundreds of thousands of bees that are living in hives,” she said. “I would ask that we need, as a community, some kind of regulation on this kind of agriculture, especially in our residential areas.”
“We are in a residential area, but from what I can see, it’s a commercial operation that’s going on in the backyard. It’s out of hand,” added Miller.
In their letter to council, Smith and Moore said they are not against bees, but the quantity of them seems to be the contributing factor to the problems they are experiencing.
Many councillors who spoke on the issue seemed surprised that bee excrement could cause such a big problem for homeowners.
“It sounds like you’re really being inconvenienced in your home and your lifestyle is being severely affected,” said Coun. Pierre Rioux.
Coun. Sean Luck agreed that there needs to be some sort of rules or regulations in place to address apiculture in the town.
“We need bees but it’s the issue of if every house around started to try to have a colony, then we’d get into the situation that you guys are in,” said Luck.
Apiculture is regulated provincially and the town has no specific regulations for hobby beehives, according to engineering and works director Gary Losier.
But a staff report to council said any commercial apiculture operations require approval from the town for a home-based business or rezoning.
“If we get into some type of a commercial enterprise, I think that it would be good to get some direction from the province as to is there a number or threshold [of hives] that is considered commercial. I think that would be a step that we would have to take with this particular situation,” said Losier.
“It is something that I think we have to do a little bit more investigation, some communication with the province as to how they regulate it, and then investigate the property in question a little bit more specifically to see what’s exactly going on on that particular property.”
Losier said they plan to reach out to the property owners in question to better understand the situation.
Town staff said the property owners also appear to be operating an online plant and garden store in contravention of the town’s zoning bylaw.
Council passed a motion to send a letter to the property owner telling them to cease and desist the online store until proper approvals are granted.