An Experience of Anaphylaxis

[Dishmop]

I had 6 hives and you could stand 10 feet away watching them come and go with no problems. They changed overnight and would come and ping my face within 30 yard of the hive. I had to wear a veil to collect my chicken eggs.
I squashed HM and requeened but it took a few weeks for them to settle down properly.

Darren.

Standing in my garden yesterday and a few bees had the hump about something and kept following me about...... might have been the washing hanging on the line.. maroon bed sheets... No problems today..


am intererested to know if bad tempered bees near their hive are still bad tempered when they fly off looking for food...


Isnt there somebody here who is setting up hives as a school project on ground next to the school?

Is that classed as urban?

 

[shonto]

maroon bed sheets...


satin ??

 

[oliver90owner]

To all the new beeks including Ivor

As I saw it, the post referred to in #112 (it was post #2 on this thread) referred to:

1) New beeks who rely on the forums or a book to get by from one week to the next,
and
2) Those in category 1) who blindly keep their bees in (small?) inappropriate residential gardens.

That seems to me to be a fair assessment of the situation in quite a few cases. Not all, by any means, but a carefully selected group of.....

If the 'cap fits' then wear it. Don't go grouching unless the post was wrong (or because Mike now needs a crutch). It was most certainly correct, in my view and personal assessment of the situation.

IF you think that: for those without much knowledge of bees at all, and keeping them in their back garden is not bad news and, as Mike puts it, 'a box of fireworks waiting to explode', then please explain clearly why you think that is not the case.

I am of the opinion that you do not have anywhere near enough experience of keeping bees to have a relevant opinion on the matter and what is worse, you have misread completly Mikes posting.

To come back two posts later and say: 'However, the way your post reads' is a complete kop-out. It does not appear anything; it was concise and very prescriptive of a fraction of new beekeepers which is a serious worry - why? because some idiot is going to drop a match in that 'box of fireworks' sooner or later and all h*ll will break loose beacause of that one incident.

All new beeks need to take heed, and if they actually fall into that narrow group as prescribed by Mike, they should be seriously questioning how can they avoid the possible consequences - ie finding out how to do it safely.

RAB

 

[Mike a]

Sorry Mike but I didn't realise you were talking about aggressive colonies only. If so then it is very unwise to keep such bees in an urban garden.

I'm not, I'm talking about any colony over time in the hands of a novice or new bee keeper kept in a small urban garden. As I said in my earlier post

It concerns me the amount of new bee keepers who rely on bee forums or a book to get by week after week and even worse a lot of these colonies are placed in an urban garden surrounded by neighbours on all sides..

However, the way your post reads it appears as if you feel that the keeping of any 'garden' bees is madness. If so it is irrelevant what my level of experience is of anything.

Ok, lets be perfectly clear here I said "in an urban garden". A typical urban (or inner city) garden is on average the size of a tennis court or smaller and tend to be surrounded on three sides with neighbours. I'm not talking about semi urban or semi rural which is what I took from your earlier post on the outskirts of a town or city with a nice garden and suitable amount of space to put up screening around the hives.

You are very much in disagreement with almost all expert advice on the matter!

Really? If that was the case there are plenty of members who are open and honest enough to post that they completely disagree with me bearing in mind I was talking about new bee keepers in an urban garden surrounded by neighbours on all sides.

First generation queens may well be low risk if managed correctly. Poor management, lack of respect, queenless colonies or superseded queens the risk goes up of the colony temperament changing and in extreme cases turning aggressive and in the hands of a new bee keeper in an urban garden it can become a major problem if not dealt with properly.

 

[shonto]

im sure i must fall into one of your catagories somewhere.
nevertheless i do have an opinion.
i grew uip with bees in our garden. although i never bothered with them ( it was a thing my mother did )
i can hardley remember ever getting stung.
if our neighbours ever did they surley did not mention it. (to my memory)
it is only in my tender years that i have decided to take on beekeepig.
my mother is very pleased about my new found love for bees as she is now in sheltered housing and it would be complicated in her present enviroment to keep bees.
i get most of the help i need from her althugh she has little experience of varroa.

so far, so good.

i'm enjoying the experience.
if it goes" tits up" i will reevaluate the situation.

shonto

 

[Mike a]

if it goes" tits up" i will evaluate the situation.

shonto

haha, you have a good mentor and you have us... Ok, well at least you have a good mentor.

 

[Dishmop]

I am a new bee keeper.

When will I be experienced?

and will be being experienced make me sensible?

 

[shonto]

Thanks mike
Dishmop,

Every day we get more experience and we have all the time in the world.

shonto

 

[Ivor Kemp]

I dont recall that the topic starter was stung by aggressive bees,, other that they were a bit pissed because he dropped them.........

so, in my opinion, rather irrelevant to urban gardens.

Agreed and my point exactly.

I apologise to mikea if I have mis-understood his post but it did seem to me that:

1. "It concerns me the amount of new bee keepers who rely on bee forums or a book to get by week after week" was a little patronising and almost certainly a gross generalisation. I know of no new beekeepers who take this approach and quite frankly most are dead nervous about starting without some hands-on training from an experienced keeper.

and

2. "and even worse a lot of these colonies are placed in an urban garden surrounded by neighbours on all sides." I am not sure what he means by 'these' colonies but if he is referring to Roy's original post there is nothing in that suggests either an agressive colony or that these bees would have attacked any neighbours. They were defending their hive which 99% of the time is the reason they sting. If mike is referring to inexperienced keepers setting up in a garden with no training then he is right. It is downright negligence. On the other hand it gets on my nerves a bit people saying that an urban garden is not suitable for bees when with expert management it is and there is just as much chance of a neighbour being stung by a passing wasp, bee or hornet as a bee from the hive. Or there should be!

 

[Dishmop]

we have all the time in the world.

Well, not quite, theres still the washing up.. but that has to wait until I have stopped talking to the bees.

Early retirement, or is it late unemployment? who cares...

 

[Dishmop]

and there is just as much chance of a neighbour being stung by a passing wasp, bee or hornet as a bee from the hive. Or there should be!

or smacked in the face with a big leather football kicked over the wall by some cretin,

 

[Ivor Kemp]

To all the new beeks including Ivor

As I saw it, the post referred to in #112 (it was post #2 on this thread) referred to:

1) New beeks who rely on the forums or a book to get by from one week to the next,
and
2) Those in category 1) who blindly keep their bees in (small?) inappropriate residential gardens.

That seems to me to be a fair assessment of the situation in quite a few cases. Not all, by any means, but a carefully selected group of.....

If the 'cap fits' then wear it. Don't go grouching unless the post was wrong (or because Mike now needs a crutch). It was most certainly correct, in my view and personal assessment of the situation.

IF you think that: for those without much knowledge of bees at all, and keeping them in their back garden is not bad news and, as Mike puts it, 'a box of fireworks waiting to explode', then please explain clearly why you think that is not the case.

I am of the opinion that you do not have anywhere near enough experience of keeping bees to have a relevant opinion on the matter and what is worse, you have misread completly Mikes posting.

To come back two posts later and say: 'However, the way your post reads' is a complete kop-out. It does not appear anything; it was concise and very prescriptive of a fraction of new beekeepers which is a serious worry - why? because some idiot is going to drop a match in that 'box of fireworks' sooner or later and all h*ll will break loose beacause of that one incident.

All new beeks need to take heed, and if they actually fall into that narrow group as prescribed by Mike, they should be seriously questioning how can they avoid the possible consequences - ie finding out how to do it safely.

RAB

Things I wish I had never started - number fourteen in a series of many!!!!

QueenBee if the points you make in 1) and 2) are what mikea meant then I absolutely agree with him. End of story.

However, this is not how I read it which I hope I have explained in my thread above which I was writing while you were posting yours.

 

[Ivor Kemp]

or smacked in the face with a big leather football kicked over the wall by some cretin,

or bitten by a dog like my seven-year-old was in his own garden!!

 

[Dishmop]

Do people who think that bees should not be kept in a city garden live isolated from other habitation within a 5k radius and have no family? no postman or other deliveries?

 

[shonto]

25 acres and subordinates

 

[SER]

Do people who think that bees should not be kept in a city garden live isolated from other habitation within a 5k radius and have no family? no postman or other deliveries?

I don't think it's a case of no-one at all with in a 5k radius. A single sting from a passing bee is one thing but what happens on that one occasion when you open up the hive that has gone queenless or is just having a bad day and your neighbour is only a few feet away over the fence?

At the very least I think people should have an alternative site to remove bees to as soon as they become a problem.

But I am lucky and have acres to play with.

Si.

 

[Dishmop]

but what happens on that one occasion when you open up the hive that has gone queenless or is just having a bad day and your neighbour is only a few feet away over the fence?

I think the same is also relevant to family members......

 

[Ivor Kemp]

I don't think it's a case of no-one at all with in a 5k radius. A single sting from a passing bee is one thing but what happens on that one occasion when you open up the hive that has gone queenless or is just having a bad day and your neighbour is only a few feet away over the fence?

At the very least I think people should have an alternative site to remove bees to as soon as they become a problem.

But I am lucky and have acres to play with.

Si.

And that's where I would concur with mikea.

just having a bad day and your neighbour is only a few feet away over the fence? is not acceptable and bad management.

At the very least it should be pre-arranged with the neighbour that you are inspecting and it is convenient for them to remain in the house or better still open up the hive when they are away during the day.

 

[shonto]

Trust me,
if there was any way of encouriging my bees to attack my neighbours , i may well think about it .

shonto

 

[Poly Hive]

I am a firm believer (from hard and expensive experience) as no doubt you have read, that bees in gardens are in general a bad idea.

Search it.

Ph