(1) “Apiary” means a beeyard or site where honeybee hives, honeybees, or honeybee equipment is located.

(2) “Apiculture” means the raising, caring for, and breeding of honeybees.

(3) “Beekeeping equipment” means honeybee hives, frames, supers, pallets, queen excluders, and other equipment which is used in the cultivation of honeybees and the harvesting of products produced by honeybees.

(4) “Certified honey” means honey that is sampled, analyzed, and certified by the department to be primarily of one type from a principal nectar source.

(5) “Colony” means a distinguishable localized population of honeybees in which one or more life stages may be present.

(6) “Compliance agreement” means a written agreement between the department and any person engaged in purchasing, assembling, exchanging, processing, utilizing, treating, or moving beekeeping equipment or honeybees wherein the person agrees to comply with stipulated requirements.

(7) “Department” means the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services of the state or its authorized representative.

(8) “Honey” means the natural food product resulting from the harvest of nectar or honeydew by honeybees and the natural activities of the honeybees in processing nectar or honeydew.

(9) “Honeybee pest” means an insect, mite, or other arthropod or a bacterium, fungus, virus, microsporidium, nematode, or other organism that damages or causes abnormalities to honeybees, colonies of honeybees, or beeswax.

(10) “Honeybee products” means honey, beeswax, pollen, propolis, and other products resulting from the activities of honeybees.

(11) “Honeydew” means a sweet substance found on leaves of plants, usually a secretion from homopterous insects.

(12) “Nectar” means a sweet solution secreted by the plant extra floral glands (nectaries) or by any part of the flower.

(13) “Regulated article” means any article capable of transporting a honeybee pest or an unwanted race of honeybees.

(14) “Special inspection” means an inspection of honeybees, honeybee products, or beekeeping equipment performed at the request of the beekeeper or honeybee product producer or handler for the purpose of meeting inspection or certification requirements of other states or countries.

(15) “Unwanted race of honeybees” means those natural, genetically isolated subspecies of honeybees which beyond a reasonable doubt can inflict damage to people or animals greater than managed or feral honeybees commonly utilized in North America.

History.—s. 1, ch. 28167, 1953; ss. 14, 35, ch. 69-106; s. 250, ch. 71-377; s. 1, ch. 74-284; s. 4, ch. 83-14; s. 2, ch. 86-62; s. 1, ch. 89-56; s. 939, ch. 97-103; s. 7, ch. 2012-83.