It might seem like a honey of a fight to some, but the clash between a longtime Utah beekeeper and a county bee inspector is no laughing matter to the beekeeper — who has filed a federal lawsuit.

Darren Cox sued Cache and Box Elder counties, as well as county bee inspector Martin James, alleging that the two governments and James have violated several of Cox's constitutional rights and certain Utah laws.

Cox contends the two counties were wrong to appoint James as their joint bee inspector since James also works as a commercial beekeeper in direct competition with Cox.

Cox says this is an unfair and illegal conflict of interest.

The lawsuit asks that James be booted from the job, and Cox wants financial damages decided at trial.

"We deny the allegations," said Cache County Attorney George Daines. "We talked to him six, seven, eight months ago, talked with him repeatedly, and we deny the allegations."

Attorneys for the Box Elder County Attorney's Office were unavailable for comment at press time.

The bee inspector's job lets him find out the secret locations of all bee apiaries to inspect and regulate them. If a beekeeper objects, the inspector can get a warrant.

Cox said he rents plots of land so he can put his apiaries in the best places for the bees to thrive, and he insists this is proprietary information. He also said he has "developed unique and specialized techniques" that have been a boon to business.

When the counties gave James a list of his apiary locations, as Cox alleges, this hurt the value of his techniques and — unfairly and illegally — tipped James off about Cox's successful methods of raising bees, the lawsuit states.

Cox said he told James not to check his apiaries, but James did so anyhow without a warrant, which Cox terms a violation of his constitutional protection against illegal searches.

Cox could pay someone else to do inspections, the lawsuit notes, but that is not required of other beekeepers, which Cox said is unfair.

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