Buzzworthy

By Mark Loehrke
Appears in the January 2025 issue.

DuPage County clarifies beekeeping ordinance

Spring may still seem a long way off, but DuPage County residents eager to get a head start on home beekeeping now at least have a regulatory road map to help guide their hives. Following months of heated debate, the county board recently passed an ordinance text amendment to clarify the rules surrounding residential beekeeping. While the new provisions give property owners the ability to keep honeybees on lots of less than an acre, prospective beekeepers will need to obtain a permit from the county’s Building and Zoning Department and will have to complete training through the Illinois Cooperative Extension’s 4-H program. Some dissenting commissioners and environmental advocates had argued against the expansion of residential beekeeping, noting that additional honeybees would compete for resources and potentially spread disease among the county’s already declining native rusty patched bumblebee population.

Photo: iStock