AGRICULTURE CODE

TITLE 6. PRODUCTION, PROCESSING, AND SALE OF ANIMAL PRODUCTS

SUBTITLE A. BEES AND NONLIVESTOCK ANIMAL INDUSTRY

CHAPTER 131. BEES AND HONEY

SUBCHAPTER A. GENERAL PROVISIONS

Sec. 131.001.  DEFINITIONS.  In this chapter:
(1)  "Abandoned apiary, equipment, or bees" means an apiary, equipment, or a colony of bees that is not regularly maintained or attended in accordance with this chapter or rules or quarantines adopted under this chapter.
(2)  "Apiary" means a place where colonies of bees or nuclei of bees are kept.
(3)  "Beekeeper" means a person who owns, leases, possesses, controls, or manages one or more colonies of bees for any personal or commercial purpose.
(4)  "Bee" means any stage of the common honeybee, Apis mellifera species.
(5)  "Colony" means a distinguishable localized population of bees in which one or more life stages may be present.
(6)  "Director" means the director of Texas A&M AgriLife Research.
(7)  "Disease" means American foulbrood, European foulbrood, any other contagious or infectious disease of honeybees, or parasites or pests that affect bees or brood.
(8)  "Equipment" means hives, supers, frames, veils, gloves, tools, machines, vacuums, or other devices for the handling and manipulation of bees, honey, pollen, wax, or hives, including storage or transportation containers for pollen, honey, or wax, or other apiary supplies used in the operation of an apiary or honey house.
(8-a)  "Hive" means a box or other shelter containing a colony of bees.
(9)  "Inspector" means the chief apiary inspector.
(10)  "Label" as a noun, means written or printed material accompanying a product and furnishing identification or a description.  The term includes material attached to a product or its immediate container and material inserted in an immediate container or other packaging of a product.
(11)  "Label" as a verb, means to attach or insert a label.
(12)  "Nucleus" means a small mass of bees and combs of brood used in forming a new colony.
(12-a)  "Package bees" means live bees in cages without combs or honey used in forming a new colony.
(13)  "Pollen" means dust-like grains formed in the anthers of flowering plants in which the male elements or sperm are produced.
(14)  "Pure honey" means the nectar of plants that has been transformed by, and is the natural product of, bees and that is in the comb or has been taken from the comb and is packaged in a liquid, crystallized, or granular form.
(15)  "Queen apiary" means an apiary in which queen bees are reared or kept for sale, barter, or exchange.
Amended by Acts 1983, 68th Leg., p. 1884, ch. 350, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1983;  Acts 1985, 69th Leg., ch. 418, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1985.
Amended by: 
Acts 2023, 88th Leg., R.S., Ch. 882 (H.B. 4538), Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2023.