Nicholas Bard, 10, looks at one of the bees in his family’s backyard. Photo / Sara Bard
No one understands “the girls” quite like Nicholas Bard.
They speak to him with the hum of their wings. They bump into – but never sting – him if he’s in their way. And sometimes, the 10-year-old reads to them.
They are his honeybees, whom the young beekeeper described as misunderstood, dutiful workers with a fixed routine: flying in and out of their painted home in service of their queen.
Nicholas received his first swarm three years ago as part of 4-H, a youth development programme.
Now the tens of thousands of bees have become an extension of his family, drawing unwelcome attention this year from the city of Santa Rosa, California.
It had “recently come to the attention of the City” that the Bards were allegedly violating local law, the notice from the local government said in April. The bees, the letter added, must go immediately.
“The first time I told the bees, I heard the vibration change like that,” said Nicholas, who noted that his girls were “feeling calm” the morning of his interview with the Washington Post. “I was upset. They were upset. Everyone was upset.”
The complaint that arrived in a plain business envelope has spiralled into a months-long saga that is poised to change the law for all hobby beekeepers within Santa Rosa city limits.
Getting there, though, took a dedicated team that traversed zoning code, land-use laws, bureaucracy, lengthy email threads and public support.
Hundreds inundated city hall with a rallying cry: Let Nicholas keep his bees.
The letter from the city of Santa Rosa accused the Bards of running an illegal home occupation – commercial beekeeping. The family later discovered it was prompted by an anonymous complaint.
After receiving the notice, Nicholas’ mother, Sara Bard, quickly dialled the city, but it was close to the weekend and no one picked up.
The family researched the zoning code and figured it was all a mistake. They had never made a single cent off the bees.
At most, they have produced one frame of blackberry-and-wildflower honey that won Nicholas “best in show” at the Sonoma County Fair this year. He also enjoyed eating some of that honey with a piece of French bread.
“We thought, we’ll go down first thing and explain before it becomes a big thing,” said Nicholas’ father, Zachary Bard.
“And we were going to say, ‘Hey, let’s just set up a time. You can come out, Nicholas will be there, and he’ll talk to you about the bees.’”
Eventually, the Bards reached the inspection officer, who they said was sympathetic to their situation and flagged the issue to his supervisor.
“I am afraid it turns out,” the worker wrote in an email afterward, that not only did the home occupation notice still stand, but the Bards were now facing an additional violation: maintenance of insects.
That nuisance code applies to wasps, hornets and other insects that are maintained “in such a manner as to pose a threat, disturbance, danger or menace to any person or property of another”.
Wild bees are also included, but Nicholas countered that several species of wild bees are protected under the Endangered Species Act, “so it’s actually illegal for Santa Rosa to have that against them”.
His bees, which he believes to be Italian bees, are also docile and nice, Nicholas said. If they landed on someone, they probably mistook the person for a flower, he noted.
Nonetheless, both statutes combined prohibit “all beekeeping within city limits”, the worker’s email said.
If the family wanted to submit a zoning text amendment to keep their bees, Santa Rosa required a one-time fee of US$20,789, plus additional costs for the planning commission and the city council.
“I don’t really have US$20,000 going around in a piggy bank waiting to be broken into for my bees,” Nicholas said. “I just don’t have that.”
Frantic and confronted with a looming deadline to remove the beehive, the family turned to Cheryl Koeller, president of the Sonoma County Beekeepers Association, and Nicholas’ 4-H adviser, Ettamarie Peterson.
“The minute Sara called me, I said we’ve got to do something to defend a child’s right to learn about something in a responsible manner,” recalled Peterson, a well-known beekeeper in the area who gave Nicholas his first swarm.
“As soon as I hung up the phone, I called Santa Rosa because I wasn’t going to let anybody walk over one of my 4-H beekeepers.”
Koeller also began inquiring, because the law didn’t just threaten Nicholas’ bees – it put all small-scale beekeepers in Santa Rosa at risk of losing their hives.
The issue stretched into the summer as both sides pored over the fine print of zoning and land use. In the meantime, Nicholas obtained permission from the California Rare Fruit Growers to send emails to their members asking for their support.
Momentum began to shift in favour of the bees once the juggernaut of public opinion became evident.
By late August, Santa Rosa informed Koeller that the city would move forward with drafting a beekeeping ordinance.
To the vexation of some supporters, the ordinance will take six to eight months to draft, followed by a city council vote, so results won’t come until the end of 2026. But Nicholas can keep his bees while that process plays out.
The city of Santa Rosa acknowledged the situation on social media in late October. It was all a misunderstanding, Santa Rosa Mayor Mark Stapp said in an interview.
The city was not aware that the zoning code was written so narrowly as to prevent all beekeeping, he said. Nicholas’ case, he added, was the “first time in anybody’s memory that anyone in the city of Santa Rosa has faced any kind of issue for beekeeping”.
He said the lengthy process is because of the amount of resources and research the city will dedicate towards writing a nuanced beekeeping ordinance.
Stapp said he is frequently stopped in public and asked about Nicholas’ bees. He emphasised that the city is in full support of young people getting involved with agriculture and expects the new beekeeping ordinance to be approved.
“There is no significant anti-beekeeping constituency in the city of Santa Rosa,” Stapp said.
The adults involved in the situation view the experience as a valuable lesson in civics and Government for Nicholas, whom they praised as a determined child on the verge of changing the law.
The 10-year-old, though, has a different take.
“Bees are way more efficient than a city council,” he said.
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