Allotment Hive

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steve1958

Drone Bee
Joined
Jul 13, 2009
Messages
1,043
Reaction score
259
Location
Hampshire UK
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
5
Recently I started a thread re Disguising my Hive in preparation for siting it on an allotment.
Well.....

I thought it a good idea to contact the other Bee Keeper who has an allotment on the site (This is a Big site we are talking about).
Mainly to see if he has had many problems there.

I was expecting some negativity from a few of the Allotment Holders
and thought my challenge was going to be persuading them that Bees would be beneficial etc etc.

However what I didnt expect was the amount of negativity I received from a fellow Bee keeper.

I traced the mans number and gave him a call, expecting to get advise and support.
However it appeared to me that he was doing his best to try and put me off.
I don't know if he is a naturally negative character, or maybe he feels any other Hives will be competition for his Bees.
But he certainly sounded less than happy about the prospect of another Hive on the site.

He told me that I would have to request approval from the Allotment Holders Association Committee (which he is on),
and the local Beekeeping association Committee (which he is on),
and the local Council.
He then went on to say that he doubted if I would be approved.

He then went on to explain how my Bees could cause problems for the Allotment Holders when they start getting stung,
and all the swarms would scare people !
Not sure what Bees he has, but they certainly sound very angry ones if thats how they behave.
I think he feels some sort of status being the only Beekeeper on the Allotments.

Its a shame really because the general public really are taking an interest at the moment.

I am still making preparations to place a Hive on the site,
but it looks like it may not be this year.
I shall have to wait till the Varroa have killed off all his Hives first.
animal-smiley-014.gif
 
welcome to the weird word of weird beekeepers.


your experience with a weird beekeeper is not unique ;)
 
Sounds like he doesn't want you on his patch.

What's the local association beekeeping committee?
BBKA? they have no power over allotments.
 
Hi Steve

Thats a shame people can get very protective and defencive at times, am I right in thinking that this is your first year with the allotment as with the bees and if this is the case perhaps hold back with the bees for now keep learning with your local association and enjoy the allotment and go on a charm offencive get to know as many people as you can. It may be the case that he is grumpy and every one else at the allotment site including the committee know this and as people get to know you, you may have bees by the end of the year and possibly be a better beekeeper than grumpy bee this may be the root of his fears
Good look keep us posted
 
I think he was just quoting names of organisations in the hope that it would sound like he knew what he was going on about.

For me its no big deal, but for a new Beekeeper trying to site their first Hive it would be a definate put off.
 
am I right in thinking that this is your first year with the allotment as with the bees

It is, yes.

I started Beekeeping last year, and have a Full but still sleepy Hive.
My mentor says I should split it this year (giving me 2 Hives),
and I have some empty Hives awaiting delivery of Bees later this year.

The Allotment belongs to a friend of mine.
She recently took over its care due to her Dad being poorly.
I offered to help out. So yes its a new project

But good advice Tom,
Thanks
 
I guess he is a member of either Portsmouth or Meon Valley BKA. I'm sure he his reasons to say what he did, but IMHO to say he was on both the allotment and association committees and then advise you he didn't think you had much chance does seem a little too blunt.

Allotments, over the years a few of our members tried to get hives on allotments without success but be warned if you do go ahead and some one gets stung they will instantly look to blame you. Personally I would avoid the hassle and see if you can make a private arrangement with a local farmer and site your hive/s in a disused area on the edge of his/her land and offer to put up some screening to keep them out of site and force the bees to go up when they leave the hive.

Are you going to the convention tomorrow in Cosham?
 
hi steve 1958, welcome to the world of nurotic bee keepers, so since i keep bees at my allotment and on an average year about 4 to 6 hives at a time shall i try to throw you a few ideas.

Firstly dont worry about this bloke he sounds like many other beeks that think they have total control on the planet, he sounds to have a very sad life and if he was normal he would not have the time to be on all those comitties.lol

so lets start from the top of your issues here.

The council, I take it, it is a council allotment, if so try a look through your set of aggrements, mine allows a standard set of animals, chickens, ducks, rabbits, bees any thing basicly without a cloven hoof. according to the leaflet i have from the DTLR " allotments; a plot holders guide" it says that " bee keeping is allowed on some sites but not all will be sutible" I am hoping that someone can quote the nation assoc. of allotment holders for there words.


so any way it works like this , I contacted the lady at the council that deals with the plots, she said its ok by me but you will have to ensure that you are covered by insurance to protect the council from litaigation, which is fine as i carry thrid party anyway, after that i sited a hive (wbc) in full view of everyone right next to the path, empty, but more than anything just to make it visible to everyone so if they complained as for bee stings, it was not mine but someone, elses a bit of a bluff but it worked to shut up any idiots like this plonker you have or detractors against bees, the one guy made 34 commplaints about my aggresive killer bees the first year, when the lady came from the council and found it was empty he was told to shut up

he states that he is a commite member of the bbka, firstly they have absolutely no say what so ever with an allotment, unless they own the ground, so that is, as already said by someone else a bluff, he proberly tried it on to frighten you off or away, so thats dead in the water. now whether you wish to be a member of the bbka is up to you, there are many ideas and threads going either way, if you were to join, just rember there will be other people there that will think the same as you that he is a grump so dont worry there

now lastly the ALLOTMENT COMMITTY now here is a nightmare ready and waiting for you. if you have no idea of how to deal with it think of it as a sleeping dinosaur, perfectly harmless untill you kick it and all hell breaks out then, with party politics and mates clubs etc a right pig


so how to deal with them, EASY,

we try talking to them! put a hive or some thing that looks like a hive on the plot ,stick a sign up, saying beware bees and see what happens, when people start to talk to you, start talking about thats what you want to do, and why and who you are, then talk them around, a commity will have say 20 or 40 people on it he is only one, showing helpfullness and understanding. ie we want the hive sitted over there not here and then move it, basicly remove all the anti's one at a time untill there is only him left, if you pm me i can go into further details, but just rember he is only one and not the end of the world
 
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It is, yes.

The Allotment belongs to a friend of mine.
She recently took over its care due to her Dad being poorly.
I offered to help out. So yes its a new project

But good advice Tom,
Thanks

The problem i see here is that you are not a member of that allotments association, you say your helping, maybe if you joined (became a member) you'd stand a better chance of being accepted.
 
On the other side of the coin....

Maybe the guy is afraid that a newbee will have hives that do swarm due to inexperience. Then if someone does happen to get stung at some point the finger would be pointed at him as well as you and you'd both be required to move your hives. He has obviously kept his there for a while with no problems so he doesn't want that arrangement disturbed.

We have bees on our allotment and if a newbee wanted to keep them I think we'd have beem more accomodating, but we wouldn't want the hard work we went to convincing the council to let us keep them in the first place etc ruined by someone not prepared to look after the bees properly. Could you assure him of your intentions and perhaps ask if he would help you out on occations doing work on the hive? Seem like he likes to get involved in others business... ;) You might only need to win one person over rather than everyone else, he's already done the hard work there.
 
Personally I would avoid the hassle and see if you can make a private arrangement with a local farmer and site your hive/s in a disused area on the edge of his/her land and offer to put up some screening to keep them out of site and force the bees to go up when they leave the hive.

Are you going to the convention tomorrow in Cosham?

Yes I shall be at the Convention
I asked my friendly Allotment Beekeeper if he was going,
but he said he was far too busy on his Allotment.

As for a site, we already have a site ready for this Spring.
With plenty of room, so that isnt a problem fortunately.

The Allotment project was a follow up to the Allotment Keepers Convention recently where they were given information about the benefits of Bees on the Allotments.
A lot of people have showed an interest including those that have the plots next to ours, so I was expecting things to run smoothly.

Maybe he knows that my Honey Prices are cheaper than his :)
 
Yes I shall be at the Convention
I asked my friendly Allotment Beekeeper if he was going,
but he said he was far too busy on his Allotment.

As for a site, we already have a site ready for this Spring.
With plenty of room, so that isnt a problem fortunately.

The Allotment project was a follow up to the Allotment Keepers Convention recently where they were given information about the benefits of Bees on the Allotments.
A lot of people have showed an interest including those that have the plots next to ours, so I was expecting things to run smoothly.

Maybe he knows that my Honey Prices are cheaper than his :)

perfect opportunity to pop down and say hello face to face, its far more difficult to be obstructive to someone's face than it is over the phone :D
 
I shall be at the convention.
It is too good an opportunity for a newbee like me to miss.
:)
 
You need to find out if you are entitled to keep your bees there. As you said it is not your allotment but someone elses this is where you could find problems. If it were your allotment he wouldnt have anything to moan about as he allready has bees there.
:cheers2:
 
I shall be at the convention.
It is too good an opportunity for a newbee like me to miss.

I'll be there as well, I may even be helping on the door in the morning so I wont be letting any rough looking types in without shirt and tie and I'll be helping another Mike with one of the afternoon talks about hive types. My part will be on TBH's.

Feel free to stand up and heckle from the back ! :boxing_smiley:
 
I was at the Bee shop a couple of weeks back and we had a visitor drop by.
He had purchased a new Hive, but had since been reading up on TBH's and wanted to know more information.
Roy sold him a ticket to the convention assuring him that we had a National TBH expert coming to speak to us.
He must have meant you :)
 
You need to find out if you are entitled to keep your bees there. As you said it is not your allotment but someone elses this is where you could find problems. If it were your allotment he wouldnt have anything to moan about as he allready has bees there.
:cheers2:

It is probably easier for me to sign her up as a BBKA member and write her name on the Hive, than for me to get membership at the Allotment to be honest.
I was told as I live outside the City boundary I am not eligible for membership
 
It is probably easier for me to sign her up as a BBKA member and write her name on the Hive, than for me to get membership at the Allotment to be honest.
I was told as I live outside the City boundary I am not eligible for membership

Not sure why you feel so aggrieved then, its like me asking to keep bees on an allotment in Mansfield.

JD
 
If that is the case you will need to look else where.:cheers2:
 
Roy sold him a ticket to the convention assuring him that we had a National TBH expert coming to speak to us.
He must have meant you :)

ROFL :laughing-smiley-004
I bet he'll be demanding his money back then if he has the misfortune to listen to me.
 

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