As used in § 4-12-2 — § 4-12-17 unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the following terms mean:

(1)  “Abandoned colony or apiary” means any colony or apiary which is not currently registered and has not been registered within the preceding two (2) years and/or which the inspector is unable to locate the owner and is unable to inspect due to conditions within the colony which render the colony or apiary uninspectable.

(2)  “Apiary” means any place or location where one or more colonies or nuclei of bees are kept.

(3)  “Authorized official” means the state official authorized to inspect apiaries in the state of origin of bees being transported into or through the state.

(4)  “Beekeeper” means any individual, person, firm, association or corporation owning, possessing, or controlling one or more colonies of bees for the production of honey, beeswax, or byproducts, or for the pollination of crops for either personal or commercial use.

(5)  “Beekeeping equipment” means all hives, hive bodies, supers, frames, combs, bottom boards, covers, excluders, screens, escape boards, feeders, hive tools, slatted racks, or other devices or boxes or other containers which may have been used in the capturing or holding of swarms, and including honey which may be or may have been used in or on any hive, colony, nuclei or used in the rearing or manipulation of bees or their brood.

(6)  “Bees” means any stage of the common honey bee, apis mellifera, or other bees kept for the production of honey, wax or pollination.

(7)  “Colony” means the bees inhabiting a single hive, nuclei box or dwelling place.

(8)  “Director” means the director of the Rhode Island department of environmental management.

(9)  “Disease” means American foulbrood and any other infectious, contagious or communicable disease affecting bees or their brood.

(10)  “Eradicate” means the destruction and/or disinfection of infected and/or infested bees, equipment and/or pests by burning or by treatment approved by the state inspector.

(11)  “Feral colony” means an unowned or unmanaged colony of bees existing naturally.

(12)  “Hive” means any man-made domicile with removable frames for keeping bees.

(13)  “Inspector” means a person appointed by the director to check for diseased conditions or pest infestations in one or more apiaries as authorized by law.

(14)  “Pests” means the honey bee tracheal mite, Acarapis woodi; and the Varroa mite, Varroa jacobsoni, and any other arthropod pests detrimental to honey bees; and genetic strains of the Africanized sub species, Apis mellifera adansoni and/or Apis mellifera scutellata.

(15)  “Swarms” means a natural division of a colony in the process of becoming a feral colony.