Are there too many bees in London???

Der Alte Fritz · Oct 14, 2012

The problem with the LBKA argument is that the bees can fly further than the boundaries of the Metropolitan Boroughs. The distance between the River Thames and the Borough of Islington is only 3 miles.
So even a hive sited in the City of London would be able to forage as far north as Belsize Park. Hives in Bloomsbury would have bees as far north as Hampstead and hives in Islington could reach the North Circular.

So bees forage in the suburbs. What is unclear is how much forage can be gained from surburban gardens and therefore what stocking density can be sustained.

Their own statement on their website:

In 2008 there were 1617 registered colonies in Greater London and by Septermber 2012 that has nearly doubled to 3337.

Given that Greater London is 610 square miles this gives a hive density of 5 per square mile in 2012 up from 2.7 in 2008.

(What is unclear from this is whether they count in hives from County Associations such as Kent which covers Bromley and Dartford.)

In rural East Sussex, I have 35 hives within 10km of me (source BeeBase) which gives a stocking density of 0.3 hives per square mile. So London always supported a hive density x10 higher than mine which would seem to indicate that there is quite a lot of forage in the suburbs and b****** all in the countryside.

Chris B · Oct 14, 2012

Der Alte Fritz said:
In rural East Sussex, I have 35 hives within 10km of me (source BeeBase) which gives a stocking density of 0.3 hives per square mile. So London always supported a hive density x10 higher than mine which would seem to indicate that there is quite a lot of forage in the suburbs and b****** all in the countryside.

Not to do with forage. Lower human density = lower beekeeper density = lower hive density.

Here's an interesting article by Ratnieks from when he was at Sheffield:
http://lasi.group.shef.ac.uk/pdf/rbeeimpr2000.pdf

To summarise, bees can waggledance for forage up to 11km away. But during a good nectar flow the average waggledance is only 1km away. That's a more significant figure when discussing productivity. (And the article doesn't even go into how foragers choose their favourite waggledance which would give the average foraging distance under 1km - Ratnieks came and did a talk here in Worcs. about 10 years ago and showed foraging distance as a bell curve).

Tom Bick · Oct 14, 2012

Unfortunately D A F it has been mentioned that the Beebase register of hive locations is often out of date with the result you may have a good few less hives in the 10km radius from you ….. you may also have a good few more :willy_nilly:

poshpikey · Oct 14, 2012

D A F isn't the beebase figure apiaries rather than colonies?

VEG · Oct 14, 2012

I think it is apiaries as the sbi only visits every few years they have no idea how many hives you could have there.

Polyanwood · Oct 14, 2012

One of the great bearded ones, who has about 40 hives in and around London, repeated again today that his average yield was in single figures this year. At the LBKA meeting today he asked members about their average yields and apart from the beekeepers around Clapham who did better, average yields for most people were under 20 lbs. There were also lots of people having had no honey at all this year.

dilys · Oct 14, 2012

Stocking rate in Switzerland is about 4 hives per square kilometre and that includes mountain tops and lakes. Although I suspect their flowers are more plentiful than in the typical British countryside I doubt if the forage is better than the London suburbs.