Another bad beekeeping story

[rae]

As the keeper of a German Shepherd, I have to point out that a 15 month old "pup" would weigh about 25 - 30 kilos and is nothing like the small dog in the picture - more like the dog in the background.

A dog that size should not be left out unsupervised.

Ours learnt very quickly that bee hives are not to be messed with.

 

[user 6228]

just highlights that bees aren't pets, they are wild animals and can't be trained, today its a dog but what if it was a toddler !!......it could happen. keeping bees in close proximity to the public is very dodgy i personally wouldn't do it, and if the reply is "i have nowhere else to keep them" then my answer would be " don't keep them then". may sound a little harsh but something worse one day will happen and we will all be tarnished with the same brush

Keep the toddlers and the public away the same as you would badgers, stock fencing plus electric fence . Surely it is not beyond the wit of most to make a dog proof enclosure that bees can exit at high level.

 

[moby]

Looks like a small bear to the bees...

R2

Pretty thick coat suprising the stings got through the fur unfortunate though.... my dog soon found out to steer clear of the hives...

 

[Skyhook]

I missed the 15 month bit at the start... Duh!
If my memory serves me, the dog will be almost totally grown and at its full adult weight at 15 months. Hardly a puppy. More emotive reporting.

I missed that as well. So the story becomes 'Adult alsatian left to wander around neighbourhood while owner is at work destroys neighbours hive and dies as result'

 

[Nose Ma]

Whilst it is quite tragic I think the point is that the hive was in the beekeeper's garden not in a public place. The bees may well be screened to make them fly up - we don't know.

The headline here, with a different spin, could read "Neglected puppy destroys colony of bees" and a call to bring back dog licences.

Would the dog's owner be calling for a registration of garden ponds or swimming pools if her dog had fallen into one and drowned after being abandoned and breaking into another's property? How would she react to the beekeeper asking for compensation for the loss of the bees due to the dog owner's negligence in allowing her dog to escape?

There has to be some give and take from both sides. As beekeepers we must control our bees, if we can't we must move them somewhere safe or stop keeping them. Dog owners must control their dogs. If they can't they should move them somewhere else, or stop keeping them. Simples.

NM

PS - would the beekeeper's insurance claim for the loss of the colony be rejected because it's an act of Dog?

<I'll get me coat>

 

[m100]

.....maybe more education for the neighbours of beekeepers is in order.

Many people are receptive to bees in an urban area but the problem is that you will never be able to educate certain neighbours with a particular mindset.

For instance if you set out to keep your bees responsibly and they are well under the radar for a few years. These kind of neighbours never mention any problem during all that time. The moment your bees become known about then they formulate a plan and every single thing that happens is down to your bees.

You know you have this breed of neighbour and know they have lost the plot when:

1) they hammer on your door on a cold afternoon in February and say that your bees are all over their garden - yet an immediate check reveals two bees chilled almost to death gathering water with frost still lying on the ground.

2) they become an instant expert on bees having spoken to the BBKA 'advice line' and downloaded their leaflet on Bees and Neighbours (which gives them lots of new things to complain about even if they have never happened)

3) they say that bees are on the flowers on a bush in their garden so they had to cut it down to 'save their children from being stung' (These children are specially selected as they are always without exception allergic to stings)

4) they say they have to tumble dry all their washing because their bed sheets are "covered in bees" (covered in this case almost certainly has an upper limit of one bee on one occasion that flew off when the neighbour started removing the washing from the line) Furthermore, by not hanging out the washing the neighbour gets even more obese sat on her arse in front of the telly and all her health problems are down to bees.

5) their house is "full of bees" that fly in through open windows and you are presented with evidence of three objects, that might be belly button fluff, or a housefly, its difficult to tell given that they are plastered in an inch of Raid.

6) they tell you that they "kill all bees on sight" when they come into their garden or house as if its going to make any difference when the flightline is in the opposite direction hundreds of feet away over high fencing and hedges.

Meanwhile this neighbours cat comes round and shits all over my veg patch and there is SFA I can do about it (I actually really like cats, but not when I have to contend with their **** and piss)

The only solution to such neighbours is hope for a plane crash, right on their house, when everyone is at home, because anything less than a Boeing or Airbus arriving vertically at 500mph with a few tonnes of aviation fuel on board and a red hot turbine as an ignition source just isn't enough.

Meanwhile every other neighbour and their children love having the bees around. They ask about them or come round and look at them at every opportunity - FFS even the 'problem' neighbours cat comes round to watch.

 

[MrB]

Love it

 

[Busybee123]

Well said!



You don't by any chance have a neighbour like this do you?

 

[Beezy]

Hmm...I think both sides are at fault. If the garden isn't fenced off then the bees aren't forced to fly up and away from peoples' heads, so I could imagine that other neighbours in the surrounding gardens weren't too happy about that. However, the dog owner shouldn't have left the dog alone to wonder around in an unsecured garden - that's just irresponsible. Also, as already mentioned, very biased bit of journalism, choosing a pic that must be over a year old of the poor dog!

 

[kazmcc]

Many people are receptive to bees in an urban area but the problem is that you will never be able to educate certain neighbours with a particular mindset.

For instance if you set out to keep your bees responsibly and they are well under the radar for a few years. These kind of neighbours never mention any problem during all that time. The moment your bees become known about then they formulate a plan and every single thing that happens is down to your bees.

You know you have this breed of neighbour and know they have lost the plot when:

1) they hammer on your door on a cold afternoon in February and say that your bees are all over their garden - yet an immediate check reveals two bees chilled almost to death gathering water with frost still lying on the ground.

2) they become an instant expert on bees having spoken to the BBKA 'advice line' and downloaded their leaflet on Bees and Neighbours (which gives them lots of new things to complain about even if they have never happened)

3) they say that bees are on the flowers on a bush in their garden so they had to cut it down to 'save their children from being stung' (These children are specially selected as they are always without exception allergic to stings)

4) they say they have to tumble dry all their washing because their bed sheets are "covered in bees" (covered in this case almost certainly has an upper limit of one bee on one occasion that flew off when the neighbour started removing the washing from the line) Furthermore, by not hanging out the washing the neighbour gets even more obese sat on her arse in front of the telly and all her health problems are down to bees.

5) their house is "full of bees" that fly in through open windows and you are presented with evidence of three objects, that might be belly button fluff, or a housefly, its difficult to tell given that they are plastered in an inch of Raid.

6) they tell you that they "kill all bees on sight" when they come into their garden or house as if its going to make any difference when the flightline is in the opposite direction hundreds of feet away over high fencing and hedges.

Meanwhile this neighbours cat comes round and shits all over my veg patch and there is SFA I can do about it (I actually really like cats, but not when I have to contend with their **** and piss)

The only solution to such neighbours is hope for a plane crash, right on their house, when everyone is at home, because anything less than a Boeing or Airbus arriving vertically at 500mph with a few tonnes of aviation fuel on board and a red hot turbine as an ignition source just isn't enough.

Meanwhile every other neighbour and their children love having the bees around. They ask about them or come round and look at them at every opportunity - FFS even the 'problem' neighbours cat comes round to watch.

Don't think I've ever laughed so much at a post on this forum. So, don't get on with this neighbour then? LOL

I had someone tell me they are allergic to bee stings when they found out I keep the bees at school....yeah, apparently she gets a lump where she is stung and it goes red.

 

[jigsaw]

Let them both put the matter in the hands of their lawyers, a few months later after savings and houses etc gone in fees, problem solved.

 

[m100]

Having looked out at my back garden with a few empty nucs with knackered old comb in them I realised I missed something earlier.

When the sky is thick black with bees the 'problem' neighbour will always maintain it's my bees - despite them clearly being someone else's swarm from who knows where that just decides to take up residence.

That's the second (presumably another prime) swarm in less than two weeks that has turned up unannounced - no sniffing around the boxes beforehand by the scouts.

I suspect this one could be fun as they appear to be going into two 6 frame nucs stacked above each other!

 

[madasafish]

Beekeeper sues dog owner for destruction of hive and loss of bees.

 

[Dishmop]

The dog owner had gone to work leaving a young puppy in an unsecured garden- how irresponsible!

Cant read the Telegraph from the link as the browser wanders off somewhere else.
Daily Mail just says she found the dog at her door trying to get in, then her house was full of bees. Bees also got onto her car which she had to abandon. Nieghbours helped get the bees off with thier hands....... and that it was a communal garden.

So, the full grown puppy was in a fenced open garden while the owner was home at work.

 

[BBG]

Meanwhile this neighbour's cat comes round and shits all over my veg patch and there is SFA I can do about it (I actually really like cats, but not when ......... lol)

The only solution to such neighbours is hope for a plane crash, FFS even the 'problem' neighbours cat comes round to watch.

I loved all the rhetoric until you got to the neighbour's cat and tears of laughter and the proximity of a heart attack from gut wrenching laughter stopped me reading!!! qith it all!

On the subject of the cat, we have same problem and have found that a £3.50 water booster pistol fired at said cats on their own doorsteps 40 feet away really ticks them off.

Strangely, some say I am cruel and should put up with said 'sticky' on hands while weeding garden.

Ditto the hidden electric fencer set up around where they keep their toilet paper in our rose bed.

Get one! You will not believe how fast and how high a cat can leap until you see it touch the wire!

If you want to do it the 'bunny hugger' way do it my uncle's method for keeping them off his carnations.

Make a small area of fine, really fine tilth soil and bury a sausage balloon fully inflated.

Cat comes along for early morning ablutions - loo roll under arm and scratches at ready made, soft soil.

Claw strikes balloon and said cat launches skyward ahead of soil, dust etc.

Well done! Loved it !!!

Can barely type this for laughing and tears.

 

[greatbritishhoney]

Don't think I've ever laughed so much at a post on this forum.

 

[Dishmop]

If you complain to council about cats that say that they have no control because they are classed as wandering animals or something.

 

[BBG]

If you complain to council about cats that say that they have no control because they are classed as wandering animals or something.

Yes, cats are property, dogs aren't.

If someone shoots your dog - tough - bunny huggers will riot on the streets but no real recourse in law.

Shoot your cat - different story - cats are property and as such have 'rights' as do you over your property.

This is rough of course but the law is there.

It's why cats look so smug and lick their nether regions when you show interest in them!

 

[dpearce4]

Looks like a small bear to the bees...

R2

at 15 months it would be the size of the dog behind not the one in front!!! i think the dog owner is lucky she wasnt sued by the bee owner she deserves it!!!!

 

[dpearce4]

just highlights that bees aren't pets, they are wild animals and can't be trained, today its a dog but what if it was a toddler !!......it could happen. keeping bees in close proximity to the public is very dodgy i personally wouldn't do it, and if the reply is "i have nowhere else to keep them" then my answer would be " don't keep them then". may sound a little harsh but something worse one day will happen and we will all be tarnished with the same brush

Many schools including kazmcc's keep bees for the pupils to learn about. so much so that the BBKA even have risk assesments and lesson plans already done for like minded people to use.

The biggest problem is due to the Tesco society we live in people have forgotten that there are real animals out there and thats where their food comes from!! we need to start educating people not have animal apartied!!

get the people onside and the papers on side. then we wont have these histerical idiots placing blame for their own animals stupidity.