Apologies if this has been discussed before, but I searched forums and didn't see it.
According to the DNR website hunting on one's own farmland qualifies as an exemption to a deer hunting license, but the land has to be used for farming, for livestock, or at least zoned agricultural.
I'm pretty sure that Indiana also defines a beekeeper's honeybees as 'livestock'.
I'm a beekeeper, and I keep bees on my 6 acre wooded property which is zoned as 'homesite' and 'residential excess acreage'. (I'm out in cornfield territory, not in any town/etc...)
Wouldn't that qualify me for the landowner exemption to hunt on my land even though it is not zoned agricultural?
I've not actually seen deer here in my woods, but think that I might be covered. I know the canned answer is that I would need to take it up with the conservation officer / DNR / etc. and even then might not be covered even if they said I was, but I wanted to get what other's opinion would be on it.
They don't specify WHAT livestock you have to have, just that the land be for livestock. I don't 'use' my woods for anything other than a place for my bees to forage for pollen and nectar, so that seems legit to me.
What do you think?
According to the DNR website hunting on one's own farmland qualifies as an exemption to a deer hunting license, but the land has to be used for farming, for livestock, or at least zoned agricultural.
I'm pretty sure that Indiana also defines a beekeeper's honeybees as 'livestock'.
I'm a beekeeper, and I keep bees on my 6 acre wooded property which is zoned as 'homesite' and 'residential excess acreage'. (I'm out in cornfield territory, not in any town/etc...)
Wouldn't that qualify me for the landowner exemption to hunt on my land even though it is not zoned agricultural?
I've not actually seen deer here in my woods, but think that I might be covered. I know the canned answer is that I would need to take it up with the conservation officer / DNR / etc. and even then might not be covered even if they said I was, but I wanted to get what other's opinion would be on it.
They don't specify WHAT livestock you have to have, just that the land be for livestock. I don't 'use' my woods for anything other than a place for my bees to forage for pollen and nectar, so that seems legit to me.
What do you think?