At a glance
Every US state has its own apiary inspection office, usually inside its department of agriculture, with its own title, contact and rules. The Apiary Inspectors of America directory lists one entry per state; this page explains what that office generally does and points there rather than guessing at any state's rules.
On this page
Beekeeping regulation in the United States is handled state by state, not by one federal office, so "your inspector" depends on which state you're in. This page explains what that office generally is and does, and how to find your own state's entry; it isn't a table of state laws or registration requirements, because those genuinely differ by state and this site hasn't done that legal research.
What the office generally is
The Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA) keeps a directory of one contact per US state, and reading across it shows a consistent shape: almost every state's apiary program sits inside that state's own department of agriculture, sometimes under a specific unit name like an "Apiary Protection Unit," an "Apiary Section," or an "Inspection & Regulatory Program". The person's title varies by state too — State Apiarist, Chief Apiary Inspector, Apiary Inspector, Apiary Program Coordinator, and combinations of those — but the role is the same kind of public office everywhere: a state government contact for bee health and apiary regulation, not a private company or a national one.
That office existing doesn't always mean the seat is filled. Delaware's directory entry, for instance, currently reads "State Apiarist Currently Vacant" rather than naming a person, but the department's own contact information is still listed underneath it. A vacant title doesn't mean there's no one to contact — the department itself is still the right door to knock on.
When you'd contact one
Two situations on this site point toward a state apiary inspector rather than toward a diagnosis or a treatment decision of our own. The hive inspection guide and the inspection log both route a suspected brood disease or pest problem to your state's inspector instead of naming what it is; a symptom checklist can record what you saw, but confirming a disease is a job for a trained inspector, sometimes with a lab sample, not a guess made from a photo or a checklist. Beyond disease, a state's own inspector's office is also generally the source for that state's specific registration requirements, import and movement rules, and any current pest alerts — the kind of state-specific legal detail this site deliberately doesn't try to reproduce on its own.
Finding yours
Each entry in the AIA's US Inspection Services directory lists a state, a contact name and title, the department it sits inside, a phone number or email, and, for most states, a link to that state's own beekeeping laws and regulations page. That last link is the actual source for a state's rules; this site links to the directory entry rather than to fifty separate state law pages, both because a directory stays current on its own as officials and offices change, and because reproducing fifty states' worth of legal requirements here would be exactly the kind of law table this site has chosen not to build. If you keep bees, or are thinking about it, the directory is the place to start finding out what your own state expects.
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Sources (1)
- Apiary Inspectors of America, US Inspection Services apiaryinspectors.org