Article 16 - Africanized Honey Bees

California Food and Agricultural Code — §§ 29320-29322

Sections (3)

Amended by Stats. 2022, Ch. 683, Sec. 24. (AB 719) Effective January 1, 2023.

The secretary, in consultation with the board, may approve programs statewide to train, on a voluntary basis, beekeepers, inspectors, or commissioners in contemporary and geographically relevant colony management, including, but not limited to, the maintenance of colonies free from Africanized honey bees.

Amended by Stats. 2017, Ch. 143, Sec. 1. (AB 861) Effective January 1, 2018.

Any hive or comparable apparatus that is not occupied by a live bee colony, and that is accessible to bees, is a public nuisance. The hive or apparatus shall be subject to abatement in the manner provided for in Article 14 (commencing with Section 29200).

Added by Stats. 2017, Ch. 143, Sec. 2. (AB 861) Effective January 1, 2018.

(a)The governing board of a city, county, or city and county may, by ordinance, establish procedures for the abatement of a hive or comparable apparatus where Africanized or overly defensive honey bees are present.
(b)In the absence of a local ordinance adopted pursuant to subdivision (a), if a commissioner determines that the presence of Africanized

or overly defensive honey bees in a hive is a public nuisance

or if Africanized or overly defensive honey bees from a hive are entering land other than the land upon which the hive is located so as to endanger the public health, safety, or welfare or so as to create an unreasonable interference with the use of the property of others, the commissioner may take any action necessary to abate the public nuisance, including, but not limited to, moving, selling, destroying, or otherwise disposing of the infested hive in accordance with local administrative procedures.