So. You want to keep bees in the state of Arkansas?

The Registration Process 

In accordance with the Apiary Laws and Regulations, any and all apiaries (locations of kept bees) must be registered with the Apiary Section of the Arkansas State Plant Board. To accomplish this, beekeepers are required to complete and have in the Apiary office an Application for Registration at least 20 days prior to setting up a new bee yard. At the office the applications will be reviewed for consideration as per the apiary laws and regulations in a timely fashion. The applicant will be notified if the Registration is complete or if it is being detained due to some conflict. Apiaries may not be set up prior to the completion of the registration process. For your convenience, a printable application is available on this website. It needs to be completed and delivered in person, by way of an apiary official or by mail to the Arkansas State Plant Board.

Most of the application is self-explanatory. It needs to be filled-out completely in order to process it quickly. Any omissions will delay the process. There are a few lines that do cause some confusion. Full land descriptions are critical in this process and can be found on property tax receipts or at the county court house. If it’s not your land that’s involved, the landowner can help you with this. In the “quarter section” column we need only the quarter (ie; nw, se, ne, sw.) The “section” will be as noted on legal description papers or on a county map and will be a number between 1 and 36. Again, the “township” and “range” will also be found on legal description papers or on a county map. Where it asks if the location is “permanent, temporary or seasonal” the applicant should mark accordingly. Permanent is where the hives will be throughout the year. Temporary is appropriate is cases where the hives are just going to be there for a short time or in cases where they’re being moved there for purposes of pollination. Seasonal is when the beekeeper moves between two or more locations in order to make honey crops. In the column for “owner of land”, if it’s your land, mark “self”. Otherwise mark the name of the owner. The yard needs to have a name that you can give it. It’s just a way that we can communicate with you about a specific location. It can be whatever you want, (no.1, home, big field, the land owner’s name, etc.). Revised 2/2013  

 

Download the registration process here.