Michelle Obama's Bees Didn't Swarm the Media

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It is an insult to all beekeepers to call Michelle Obama a beekeeper. She may be a beekeeper keeper, but she does not keep bees. Has she went out to the hive and studied the larva or egg patern that the queen has left behind to indicate her condition. Has she dusted the little darlings with powderd sugar and timed their return to the hive. Has she considered the occasional sting an honor and part of her duty as a beekeeper.

Just a Beekeeper of TX 5:40PM January 12, 2011

If you are a beekeeper, as you claim, you should support
fellow beekeepers. The fact that a Bylaw or ordinance
prohibits beekeeping does little to change the fact that bees are kept in urban settings throughout the country without incident.
Media attention such as this serves only to increase the
possibility that unreasonable and unenforcable bylaws and
ordinances such as this will be struck down.
To suggest that only the rich and powerful can get around bylaws belies the fact that dozens of hives exist in BC and
what children learn from interacting with them is of far greater
benefit than the"bad example" you claim is set for them by
a simple bylaw violation. Gibe you head a shake and have some honey!
Both

Scott of DC 5:51PM April 09, 2010

the section continues:
904.2 The provisions of this section shall not apply to bees confined in hives, or to bees kept on property that is enclosed so that the bees cannot stray from the property.

A wannabee-keeper of VA 3:54PM August 24, 2009

In Washington DC it is prohibited to keep honeybees in a hive within 500 feet of a residence. Yet despite this Michelle Obama has a hive of honeybees in her garden on the whithouse grounds illegally, as does Toni Burnham the so-called "underground urban beekeeper" that recently came out of hiding and was celebrated by the Washington Post along with the president's wife.
Title 24, Section 904.1 of the DC Municipal Regulations (DCMR) states "No bees or hives of bees shall be permitted to be kept when there are human habitations within a radius of five hundred feet (500ft.)."
Scofflaws such as these give those of us who are law abiding beekeepers a bad name and set a bad image and example for others, especially children.
Is sure is nice to be rich and powerful or have friends in high places. The laws are not enforced for such people. Shame on the Washington Post and any other media outlet that give such people celebrity without reporting the fact that the hives are in violation of the law.

A real beekeeper of VA 1:40PM June 11, 2009