Beehives Stir Up Hornet's Nest Between Neighbors

Kathy Shuttle limits the amount of time her children play outside a house she rents off Lowe’s Private Drive in Sullivan County’s Hickory Tree Community.

She’s scared they’ll get stung by her neighbor’s bees.

“This summer’s been the worst,” she said as she swatted at some bees that swarmed around her face during a Tuesday interview outside her house.

Shuttle said she’s been stung four times this summer. Her husband, Jeff, had to go to the emergency room after a bee sting – one of three this year – got infected.

Shuttle’s 4-year-old daughter, Madison, got stung twice over the summer, while her 2-year-old brother, Evan, so far has managed to avoid getting stung.

“It’s really getting old,” Shuttle said.

The insects come from a series of hives Vance and Lorene Lowe tend on a spot in their backyard less than 20 yards from Shuttle’s house.

Vance Lowe said the spot where the hives sit is an “ideal place” for the bees because it gets sun in the morning and shade in the evening.

He also said he’s kept the insects as a hobby since the early 1980s and hasn’t heard any complaints about them from anyone in the neighborhood.

Shuttle said she’s asked the Lowes to move the bees, but they’ve refused, claiming they can do what they want on their property.

Shuttle can’t make Lowe move his bees because there are no state or local laws dictating where people should keep their hives. She’s now planning to move once the house’s owners can find a buyer.

“It’s a shame that you can’t do anything about it,” Shuttle said.

THE BEES

Temperatures in Hickory Tree dropped into the low 70s Tuesday afternoon. That didn’t stop the bees from swarming. It merely slowed them down.

The insects clustered around Shuttle’s hummingbird feeders and landed on top of her children’s toys. They hovered within reach of everyone who stood outside that day but never made a move to sting.

“If [Lowe] had any decency, he wouldn’t have [his bees] this close to kids,” said Julie Miller, who owns Shuttle’s house with her husband, Lee Miller.

“What happens if this little girl or little boy gets stung so bad they die?” she asked. “How can I live with myself if that happens?”

Both the Millers and the Lowes mentioned a 20-year history of animosity between their two families when interviewed for this story. They also gave sharply contrasting answers when asked basic questions about the bees, and how long they’ve been a problem, if they’ve been a problem at all.

Lee Miller said the Lowes have kept the bees on their property only for the past four or five years. He said Lowe moved his hives closer to Shuttle’s house this summer when he realized Miller and his wife still own the property.

“Those people have never said anything about the bees,” Vance Lowe said. “My bees have been there for years, and I’ve never had a complaint from anybody.”
Lowe later admitted a prior bee encounter.

He said Madison, the Shuttles’ 4-year-old daughter, once came to his house after she got stung and “told me I was going to have to move my bees” as he gave her some Benadryl to help with the sting.

Shuttle said she, her husband and her daughter each have asked Lowe to move his bees on separate occasions, to no avail.

About two months ago, Shuttle told the Millers, the landlords, she’d had enough of the bees and wanted to move. The Millers since have put their home on the market. Shuttle said the bees are complicating the task.

She said a man came by to look at her house about three weeks ago and “the first thing he said was ‘I’m allergic to bees.’ ”

Lowe remains unsympathetic to his neighbor’s complaints. He said Tuesday that he would not move his hives “unless I’m told by the court that I have to.”

Julie Miller set out to give Lowe his day in court soon after she learned Shuttle wanted to leave the house. She tried filing a complaint against Lowe with the Sheriff’s Office and then was referred to the Tennessee apiarist.

THE LAW

The Office of the State Apiarist is a regulatory branch of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture and deals specifically with bees – the state’s official agricultural insect.

Any beekeeper who tends more than one apiary, or cluster of beehives in the same place, must register their bees with the office. Failure to do so can result in a fine of $500 per apiary, State Apiarist Michael Studer said in a telephone interview.

Julie Miller said she called the Department of Agriculture several weeks ago when she learned Vance Lowe was not registered.

The department’s staff told her they would investigate, she said. But after a few weeks and two follow-up calls, Julie Miller said she learned “no investigation has taken place” and was upset by the delays and what she said was a run-around.

Studer said he had received an earlier call about Lowe but hadn’t taken any action because he couldn’t find Lowe’s telephone number in his database.

This left him with no choice but to drive from his office in Nashville to Hickory Tree one day last week and talk to Lowe in person, he said. He then took a quick look at his notes during the interview and realized he’d been looking for a “Vince Lowe” instead of a “Vance Lowe.”

“He’ll be getting a call from me in a few minutes,” Studer said, once he found Lowe’s phone number in his database. Lowe also is listed in the phone book.

During a second phone interview that took place 90 minutes later that afternoon, Studer said he reached Lowe over the phone.

Lowe told him he didn’t know about the law requiring him to register his hives, Studer said, and promised to as soon as possible.

Lowe completed a registration form last week and said during an interview that he would send it to Studer’s office the next day, Wednesday.

Studer said there’s been a big problem with people not knowing they have to register their bees. Satisfied with Lowe’s plans to register, Studer said he would be “giving him a break” on the fines.

THE NUISANCE

The Tennessee Apiary Act of 1995, the main state law dealing with bees and beekeeping, is designed to keep bee-borne diseases and pests from spreading and wiping out the state’s bee population.

The law requires beekeepers to register their apiaries and submit to periodic inspections of their hives and equipment. It does not, Studer said, cover anything about how far beehives must be kept from someone’s house or what to do if bees become a problem.

“It’s more of a common-sense type of thing,” Studer said when asked about the Shuttles’ predicament. “You don’t want to cause any problems.”

He said local governments might have nuisance animal laws dealing with bees and compared the Shuttles’ situation to a person who has problems with a neighbor’s barking dogs.

“We’ve never had a bee call, and I’ve been here for almost 10 years,” said Sullivan County Animal Control Supervisor Steve Ward.

The county has three animal nuisance laws that deal with dogs that run at large, female dogs that run at large while in season and cows or other livestock that run at large due to improper fencing, Ward said. Bees are also considered to be wildlife rather than domestic animals, he said, because they are insects and naturally occur in the environment.

Ward said the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency might be responsible for handling nuisance wildlife complaints.

The person who answered the phone at the agency’s Region IV office on Tuesday said nuisance bee complaints fall under the purview of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The person who answered the phone at the USDA’s Blountville Service Center Tuesday said to call the county Extension Office.

“I don’t think there’s any county [or state] law saying where you can or cannot have a beehive,” Extension Agent Chris Ramsey said. “But I’m not an expert.”

Julie Miller’s frustration peaked Tuesday after she learned she had no legal recourse to make Lowe move his bees. She then asked for the date of the next County Commission meeting and how she could reach her state legislators.

“Maybe we need to make a new law,” Julie Miller said. “We need to have some rules in place. We need to have some regulations.”

gmclean@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2518