Advice required re:neighbours (again!)

[mocko]

Hi All,

Put up a post not so long ago about some complaints from a neighbouring plot holder on the allotment. Basically he and now other people are complaining that bees are "bumping" into them when they are around the site.

We have another plot holder who also keeps bees on his plot too. There has been no stings or attacks but its seems that now and again people are in a flight path, but the bees are not being aggressive. I'm peed off because its always my bees that are under fire and not the other plot holders.

They have also now become experts and have told me I need to raise the scaffold netting which is surrounding them even higher. It is already just over 6ft high but how far can I actually raise this without compromising the bees? Will this actually help in any way whatsoever?

I'd appreciate your advice once again

A

 

[Hivemaker.]

They have also now become experts and have told me I need to raise the scaffold netting which is surrounding them even higher.

Give it a try,raise the netting to twelve or even twenty four feet high and see if that cures the problem.

 

[For want of a better word]

I had much the same negative attitude from the snotty lot at WEMBURY allotments in Sunny South Hams... there was a lady "expert" who had attended a BBKA course and knew the lot !!! ( although she had never kept bees)

With such "anti bees are going to sting our children" attitude, I moved on..... bees in adjacent field did well on the bean crop planted by the farmer surrounding the allotments!!!

Guess you just have to be lucky to get reasonable neighbors,,,..... allotments or otherwise

Suggest you find a friendlier site for your bees... near the allotments of course!!!
GOOD LUCK !

 

[AnotherNewBee]

Perhaps it's the other beek doing most of the complaining?

It seems unlikely that raising barriers will achieve much. The flight path(s) will be taking them to whatever they're visiting which will, likely, be the plotholders' crops. Unless they're growing sunflowers the bees aren't going to stay above the plotholders' heads no matter how high you raise your barrier.

 

[For want of a better word]

Give it a try,raise the netting to twelve or even twenty four feet high and see if that cures the problem.

THAT will surely upset em all... even computer disc/ cd scarers were banned at Wembury as being an eyesore!!

 

[mocko]

Give it a try,raise the netting to twelve or even twenty four feet high and see if that cures the problem.

Are you serious? can you really raise it that high? There is currently only 3 foot between the hive entrance and the scaffold netting?

Thanks

A

 

[newportbuzz]

id try raising the flight path a bit more. what harm can it do. there are 6 ft people around especialy when you consider hair. stick another ft or two on it. and as above find a nice spot for the bees outside the allotment.
the people are focused on you now so anything going wrong will be you problem now easier to move the hive than defend everything.

 

[victor meldrew]

I wonder who was the first person to house their bees on the allotment ?
VM

 

[Angusthebee]

I had a similar experience last year here in Staffordshire, I was totally responsible for every insect bite or sting in all of Burton on Trent!
Just took them away from the allotment altogether, interestingly enough people were still complaing 2 weeks after I moved them!!

 

[Poly Hive]

Precisely.

People have reported issues with stinging after the bees have been moved and empty hives left to precisely flush this sort of rubbish into the open.

However one has to accept as a beekeeper that these attitudes do exist and the general public are not in general happy to have bees near them.

PH

 

[mexbigshow]

Put up a post not so long ago about some complaints from a neighbouring plot holder on the allotment. Basically he and now other people are complaining that bees are "bumping" into them when they are around the site.

bees bumping into them, i didn't realise they did so much harm when they fly into you, what do they do when other flying insect hit them? i hope 1 of the pigeons don't hit them or they might die

 

[AnotherNewBee]

These are 200lb monster bees with lots of sharp edges and no soft padding. Have some sympathy for the poor plotholders.

 

[itma]

...
We have another plot holder who also keeps bees on his plot too. There has been no stings or attacks but its seems that now and again people are in a flight path, but the bees are not being aggressive. I'm peed off because its always my bees that are under fire and not the other plot holders.
...

Why?
Different bees or different beekeeper?



I'd strongly suggest that you ought to work with the other beek, and both take similar precautions and attitudes - including regarding what constitutes acceptable bee temperament.
It helps to have friends rather than enemies.

Perhaps if a few other friends on the allotment site had six foot tall boundaries (growing or otherwise), then fast-flying 'commuting' bees would naturally fly higher on their way to and from their pollination work?

 

[mexbigshow]

haha they must be monsters, us plotholders are a strange breed no1 bats an eyelid round here we are more concerned about the filthy robbing smackheads and little sh1ts trashing the allotments rather than complaining about beneficial insects

 

[Hivemaker.]

Are you serious? can you really raise it that high?

Yes.

 

[AnotherNewBee]

can you really raise it that high?

I don't suppose the bees will mind.

The allotment holders almost certainly will.

 

[Peterwh]

Tell them that your bees have complained about allotment holders bumping into them.

 

[psafloyd]

Tell them that your bees have complained about allotment holders bumping into them.

Or that if they hurt them the RSPCA will be after them...

 

[Tom Bick]

If you get that far remember to hand out a few jars of honey to sweeten the experience for next year.

 

[Polyanwood]

I've had plotholders complain about bees drinking from the ground sheets they put on the soil on the allotment. Most of them when I told them what they were doing (drinking because it was hot and they needed the water to cool the hive or drinking because the nectar flow was poor and they needed the water to dilute the honey so they can eat it) relaxed. Some of them even went as far as to ask about how they could plant forage for the bees and how they could provide handier water sources for them.

It may sound too simple, but it seems that some people when they see bees flying about think that they are flying about in order to sting them. Explaining polllination to them and the benefits to them as plotholders and explaining why the bees need pollen and nectar may do the trick.

I had wrongly assumed that plotholders would already understand all these things, but they did not.