Beekeeping is a vital practice, one essential to the health of our urban environment and has tremendous potential as a vehicle for economic development and education efforts City-wide. Therefore, we propose the New York City Department of Health amend Health Code section 161.01(b) (12) which bans the practice of beekeeping in New York City. New York City Health Code section 161.01 prohibits the possession, keeping, harboring and selling of “wild animals” and subsection (b) (12) includes a ban on “all venomous insects, including, but not limited to, bee, hornet and wasp.” We, the undersigned, propose that the Department of Health remove bees from this list, thereby lifting its ban on beekeeping.