Safety Harbor, FL Animal Ordinances: Beekeeping (2026)

586.10 Powers and duties of department; preemption of local government ordinances. — (1) The authority to regulate, inspect, and permit managed honeybee colonies and to adopt rules on the placement and location of registered inspected managed honeybee colonies is preempted to the state through the department and supersedes any related ordinance adopted by a county, municipality, or political subdivision thereof. (2) The department shall: (a) Administer and enforce this chapter. (b) Adopt rules necessary to enforce this chapter, rules relating to standard grades for honey and other honeybee products, and, after consultation with local governments and other affected stakeholders, rules to administer this section. (3) The department may: (a) Enter upon any public or private premises or carrier during regular business hours for the purpose of inspection, quarantine, destruction, or treatment of honeybees, used beekeeping equipment, unwanted races of honeybees, or regulated articles. (b) Declare a honeybee pest or unwanted race of honeybees to be a nuisance to the beekeeping industry as well as any honeybee or other infested or infected article that is exposed to infestation or infection in a manner believed likely to communicate the infection or infestation. (c) Declare a quarantine against any area, place, or political unit within this state or other states, territories, or foreign countries, or portion thereof, in reference to honeybee pests or unwanted races of honeybees and prohibit the movement within this state from other states, territories, or foreign countries of all honeybees, honeybee products, used beekeeping equipment, or other articles from such quarantined places or areas which are likely to carry honeybee pests or unwanted races of honeybees if the quarantine is determined, after due investigation, to be necessary in order to protect this state’s beekeeping industry, honeybees, and the public. In such cases, the quarantine may be made absolute or rules may be adopted prescribing the method and manner under which the prohibited articles may be moved into or within, sold in, or otherwise disposed of in this state. (d) Enter into cooperative arrangements with any person, municipality, county, or other department of this state or any agency, officer, or authority of other states or the Federal Government, including the United States Department of Agriculture, for inspection of honeybees, honeybee pests, or unwanted races of honeybees and products thereof and the control or eradication of honeybee pests and unwanted races of honeybees, and contribute a share of the expenses incurred under such arrangements. (e) Investigate methods of control, eradication, and prevention of dissemination of honeybee pests or unwanted races of honeybees. (f) Inspect or cause to be inspected all apiaries in the state at such intervals as it may deem best and keep a complete, accurate, and current list of all inspected apiaries to include the: 1. Name of the apiary. 2. Name of the owner of the apiary. 3. Mailing address of the apiary owner. 4. Location of the apiary. 5. Number of hives in the apiary. 6. Pest problems associated with the apiary. 7. Brands used by beekeepers where applicable. Notwithstanding s. 112.313 , an apiary inspector may be a certified beekeeper as long as the inspector does not inspect his or her own apiary. (g) Collect or accept from other agencies or individuals specimens of arthropods, nematodes, fungi, bacteria, or other organisms for identification. (h) Confiscate, destroy, or make use of abandoned beehives or beekeeping equipment. (i) Require the identification of ownership of apiaries. (j) Enter into a compliance agreement with any person engaged in purchasing, assembling,