R.I. Gen. Laws § 4-12-12

This is the official text of R.I. Gen. Laws § 4-12-12, part of Rhode Island’s Gen. Laws — part of the compiled statutory law of Rhode Island, published by the state as "Gen. Laws." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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§ 4-12-12. Registration of apiaries.

Official statutory text

(a) All apiaries in the state must be registered, annually, with the director of environmental management not later than March first. All persons owning honey bees within the state shall annually notify the director of the keeping of bees, their location and number of colonies.

(b) Any person(s) within the state who sells, gives, barters, or otherwise transfers ownership of bees and/or honey bee colonies, and/or nuclei colonies shall notify the director, in writing, within thirty (30) days of the name and address of the new owner.

(c) Between 14 and 30 days prior to March first annually the director shall cause notice of the registration requirement to be published at least twice in the state newspaper and in other newspapers and journals of general circulation adequate to provide reasonable notice throughout the state.

(d) The director shall mail to all registered beekeepers the necessary registration material annually, at least thirty (30) days prior to March first.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.