WHAT WE DO
HELPING BEEKEEPERS BENEFITS LANDOWNERS
The American Bee Project helps commercial beekeepers rebuild and strengthen bee colonies by encouraging landowners who have suitable vacant land to make such land available to beekeeping. Landowners receive real estate tax, insurance, maintenance and other benefits for allowing beekeepers use of their land. We advocate that bee apiaries are an agricultural use of land, and therefore are entitled to the same real estate tax benefits as other agricultural uses such as cattle.
In Florida where we are based, we offer full support to our landowners, from documenting the beekeepers' use of the property, to handling insurance and illegal dumping issues, to applying for agricultural tax benefits, to negotiating with the government property appraisers (tax assessors), to handling any appeals that may be required to obtain the agricultural classification and obtain the tax refunds to which the owner may be entitled.
We are working to get uniform standards put in place around the country that will make it easier to qualify bees as an agricultural use for the full amount of forage land used by the bees to produce honey and rebuild bee colonies. Our 50 state guide makes it easy to check the laws in your state.