Clarifying Commissioner of Agriculture's authority to regulate bees

SB 927 Text

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Introduced Version

Senate Bill 927 History

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Key:
Green
= existing Code.
Red
= new code to be enacted

WEST virginia legislature
2026 regular session
Introduced
Senate Bill 927
By Senators Hart and Chapman
[
Introduced February 12, 2026; referred
to the Committee on Agriculture
]
A BILL to amend and reenact §19-13-1, §19-13-2, §19-13-3, §19-19-4, and §19-19-7 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to agricultural production; providing legislative findings relating to the West Virginia Apiary Act; defining terms; clarifying exclusivity of commissioner of agriculture’s authority to regulate bees, bee equipment, and apiaries; and clarifying when legal proceedings may be maintained against certain owners or operators of agricultural land or agricultural operations.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

Article 13.
inspection and protection of agriculture

The west virginia apiary act
.

§19-13-1. Short title
; legislative findings.

(a)
This article
may be cited

shall be known
as "The West Virginia Apiary Act".
(b) The Legislature finds and declares that:
(1) Pollinators such as honey bees have been in drastic decline in this state and nationwide for several decades.
(2) Protecting pollinators, including but not limited to honey bees, is of critical importance to building and maintaining the state's economy, specifically with respect to agricultural operations that rely on pollinators.
(3)
The practice of beekeeping has had a positive economic impact on this state and on the food security of the state's residents.
(4) The private keeping and maintaining of honey bee colonies in apiaries by citizens of this state is critical to increasing pollinator populations, which will in turn strengthen the state’s agricultural operations. Therefore, it is in the best interest of the state and its citizens to provide for a uniform and predictable statewide regulatory framework applicable to bees, bee equipment, and apiaries.

§19-13-2. Definitions.

For the purpose of this article, the term:
(1) "Abandoned apiary" means any apiary in which twenty-five percent or more of the colonies are dead or diseased, or the death or disarray of the colonies exposes them to robbing, or diseased or potentially diseased abandoned bee equipment which may jeopardize the welfare of neighboring colonies.
(2) "Apiary" means any place where one or more colonies or nuclei of bees are kept or where bee equipment is stored.
(3) "Appliance
s
" means any apparatus, tool, machine, or other device used in the handling and manipulating of bees, honey, wax, and hives
. It also means
, as well as
any container of honey and wax that may be used in any apiary or in transporting bees and their products and apiary supplies.
(4) "Bees" means any stage of the common hive or honey bee (Apis mellifera), or other species of the genus Apis.
(5) "Bee equipment" means hives, supers, frames, veils, gloves, or any other appliances.
(6) "Bee product
s
" means honey, bees wax, pollen, propolis, and royal jelly.
(7) "Colony" means the hive and includes bees, comb, honey, and bee equipment.
(8) "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of the Department of Agriculture of the State of West Virginia or a duly authorized employee.
(9) "Control agent
s
or control mechanism
s
" means any method of chemical or mechanical control to suppress or eradicate an apiary disease, pest, or parasitic infestation in an apiary or the colonies contained therein.
(10) "Department" means the Department of Agriculture of the State of West Virginia.
(11) "Hive" means a frame hive, box hive, box, barrel, log, gum, skep, or any other receptacle or container, natural or artificial, or any part thereof, which may be used or employed as a domicile for bees.
(12) "Honey bee pest" means American foulbrood (Bacillus larvae), European foulbrood (Melissococcus pluton), Varroa mite (Varroa destructor), honey bee tracheal mite (Acarapis woodi),
Tropilaelaps mite (Tropilaelaps clareae or Tropilaelaps mercedsae),
or any other virus or infectious or parasitic organism determined by the commissioner to be transmissible to other bee colonies and that represents a threat to beekeeping in West Virginia.
(13) "Nuclei" means the removal of a split portion or division of any colony of honey bees for the express purpose of creating a numerical increase in colonies for honey production, pollination service, or monetary gain through sale of honey bees.
(14) "Packaged bees" means bees shipped in combless packages accompanied by a valid certificate of health from an authorized state or federal agency
verifying

which verifies:
(A)
The absence or presence of any infectious or communicable diseases or parasitic infestations; and
further providing
(B)
That no honey has been used for food while in transit or that any honey used as food in transit was properly sterilized.
(15) "Person" means corporations, partnerships, associations, societies, individuals or group of individuals or any employee, servant, or agent acting for or employed by any person.
(16) "Premises" means any parcel of real estate
and

or
structure
s
in which bee equipment, bees, bee products,
and

or
bee appliances are or may be utilized for storage purposes.
(17) "Quarantine" means a declaration by the commissioner which specifies a period of enforced isolation to contain and prevent the spread of honey bee pests.
(18) "Sterilized or sterilization" means to treat and neutralize honey bee pests by means of steam autoclave, pit incineration, or by any other acceptable method which the commissioner determines effective for control of honey bee pests.

§19-13-3. Commissioner's powers and duties; rule-making authority; apiary education; cooperation with governmental agencies; seizure of infected bees and bee equipment
; commissioner’s exclusive authority
.

(a) The commissioner
may

shall
propose rules for legislative approval in accordance with the provisions of §29A-3-1
et seq.
of this code:
(1) To effectively eradicate, suppress or control honey bee pests as far as may be practical;
(2) To regulate the keeping and maintaining of bees, bee equipment, queen breeding equipment, apiaries and appliances;
(3) To regulate treatments, retreatments, and fees for the services; and
(4)
any other rules

For any other purpose
necessary to effectuate the enforcement of this article.
(b) The commissioner is authorized to conduct apiary education in a manner which advances and promotes bee culture in West Virginia.
(c) The commissioner is authorized to cooperate with the federal government and its agencies, departments, and instrumentalities; other West Virginia agencies, departments, divisions, or political subdivisions; and any other state or commonwealth and its agencies, departments, or political subdivisions, in order to carry out the effective administration of this article.
(d) The commissioner is authorized to stop the delivery of, to seize, to destroy, to treat, or to order returned to point of origin, at the owner's expense, all appliances, bees, bee equipment, bee products, or hives transported into or within this state
which are
found to be infected with honey bee pests, regardless of whether a valid certificate of inspection is attached.
(e) The commissioner shall have exclusive authority to register, permit, inspect, sample, and otherwise regulate the keeping and maintaining of bees, bee equipment, and apiaries in this state as provided in this article. No county, municipality, or other political subdivision may, whether by ordinance, charter, resolution, administrative act, or otherwise, enact, adopt, implement, or enforce any ordinance, regulation, or rule which relates to the registration, permitting, inspection, placement, location, or management of apiaries or which otherwise conflicts with the powers and duties of the commissioner or with rules promulgated by the commissioner pursuant to this article. Any such ordinance, regulation, or rule is preempted by the provisions of this article.

Article 19. Preservation of Agricultural Production.

§19-19-4. Agriculture not adverse; limitation of actions.

The conduct of agriculture upon agricultural land shall not be deemed adverse to other use or uses of adjoining or neighboring land, whether such other land be used or occupied for residential, commercial, business or for governmental, or any uses other than agricultural. No complaint or right of action shall be maintained in any court of this state against the owner or operator of agricultural lands adverse to the conduct of agriculture upon agricultural lands, unless:
(1) The complainant's use and occupancy of land of the complainant has existed upon his
or her
adjoining or neighboring land before the agricultural operation complained of upon the agricultural land; and
(2) The conduct of such agricultural operation complained of has
, by clear and convincing evidence,
caused or will cause actual physical damage to the person or property of the owner or occupant of such adjoining or neighboring lands.

§19-19-7. Additional limitations on nuisance actions.

(a) The provisions of this section are in addition to the limitations on actions brought against an agricultural operation in §19-19-4 of this code, and shall also apply to any nuisance action brought against an agricultural operation in any court of this state.
(b) A person may not file a nuisance action to recover damages in which an agricultural operation is alleged to be a public or private nuisance unless:
(1) He or she is the majority legal land owner;
(2) He or she owns property adversely affected by agricultural operations within one half mile of the agricultural operation; and
(3) The agricultural operation has materially violated a federal, state, or local law applicable to agriculture.
(c) No agricultural operation within this state which has been in operation for a period of more than one year shall be considered a nuisance, either public or private, as the result of a changed condition in or about the locality where such agricultural operation is located. In any nuisance action, public or private, against an agricultural operation or its principals or employees proof that the agricultural operation has existed for one year or more is an absolute defense to the nuisance action, if the operation is in compliance with all applicable state and federal laws, regulations, and permits.
(d) No state or local agency,
county, municipality, or other political subdivision
may bring a criminal or civil action against an agricultural operation for an activity that is in material compliance with all applicable state and federal laws, regulations, and permits.
(e) No agricultural operation shall be or become a private or public nuisance if the operators are conducting the agricultural operation in a manner consistent with commonly accepted agricultural practice. If the operation is in material compliance with all applicable state and federal laws, regulations, and permits, it shall be presumed to be conducted in a manner consistent with commonly accepted agricultural practice.
(f) No agricultural operation shall be considered a nuisance, private or public, if the agricultural operation makes a reasonable expansion, so long as the operation is in material compliance with all applicable state and federal laws, regulations, and permits.
(1) For the purpose of this section, a reasonable expansion includes, but is not limited to:
(A) Transfer of the agricultural operation;
(B) Purchase of additional land for the agricultural operation;
(C) Introducing technology to an existing agricultural operation including, but not limited to, new activities, practices, equipment, and procedures consistent with technological development within the agricultural industry;
(D) Applying a Natural Resources Conservation Service program or other United States Department of Agriculture program to an existing or future agricultural operation; or
(E) Any other change that is related and applied to an existing agricultural operation, so long as the change does not affect the agricultural operation’s compliance with applicable state and federal laws, regulations, and permits.
(2) The reasonable expansion exemption provided by this subsection cannot apply to an expansion that:
(A) Creates a substantially adverse effect upon the environment; or
(B) Creates a hazard to public health and safety.
(g) A requirement of a municipality does not apply to an agricultural operation situated outside of the municipality’s corporate boundaries on the effective date of this chapter. If an agricultural operation is subsequently annexed or otherwise brought within the corporate boundaries of a municipality, the requirements of the municipality do not apply to the agricultural operation.
(h) An agricultural operation is not, nor shall it become, a private or public nuisance after it has been in operation for more than one year, if such operation was not a nuisance at the time the operation began, and the conditions or circumstances complained of as constituting the basis for the nuisance action exist substantially unchanged since the established date of operation. The established date of operation is the date on which an agricultural operation commenced.
(i) The provisions of this section shall not apply in any of the following circumstances:
(1) Whenever a nuisance results from the negligent operation of any such agricultural operation; or
(2) To affect or defeat the right of any person to recover for injuries or damages sustained because of an agricultural operation or portion of an agricultural operation that is conducted in violation of a federal, state, or local statute or governmental requirement that applies to the agricultural operation or portion of agricultural operation.
(j) The protected status of an agricultural operation, once acquired, is assignable, alienable, and inheritable. The protected status of an agricultural operation, once acquired, may not be waived by the temporary cessation of operations or by diminishing the size of the operation.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to clarify the Commissioner of Agriculture’s authority to regulate bees, bee equipment, and apiaries in the state, and to clarify when legal proceedings may be maintained against certain owners or operators of agricultural land or agricultural operations.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.

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