Are there too many bees in London???

[Polyanwood]

Interesting

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19913180

 

[priono]

I heard that as well that London doesnt need new beekeepers but more plants.

£7m loss or £14m is the total honey production in the UK only?
if a lb is £5 then this is just 1.4m lb. wow that seems rather small amount. no wonder that UK imports 80% of honey.

 

[Skyhook]

Too many everything in London if you ask me!

.

 

[itma]

Seems like the organisation is getting a lot of publicity having expanded from four hives to eight ... how significant is that in the London context?

/ the four extra hives, not the publicity!

/ and was that 37 lb of honey total, or per hive ... ?

 

[djg]

Fear not, the forage fightback in London has begun!

Southwark Council will be planting 350 Bee-Friendly Plants in St. Mary Magdalen Churchyard SE1 9.30pm-4.00pm on Thursday 25th October.

Local volunteers welcome - contact [email protected]

This is funded by a "Cleaner, Greener Safer" grant from Southwark Council. The next step is to embed a protocol for 20% Bee-Friendly planting in Southwark's municipal planting procurement policy. (Wish me luck with that one....)

Should be a worthwhile alternative to the National Honey Show, which starts that day!

 

[farbee]

Too many everything in London if you ask me!

.

Not many sheep pigs or cows

 

[tonybloke]

Not many sheep pigs or cows

I'll agree with the you on 'sheep'..........................................

 

[Istel]

I'm not convinced that there are too many bees in London, although it would be quite hard to prove either way. I think that the idea of a saturation point for bees has been debated for over a hunderd years (Langstroth talked about it). I certainly don't see too many on forage plants near me.

 

[Poly Hive]

Easy enough to work out, is the annual average increasing on average or dropping.

PH

 

[piedpiper]

Honey yields are going down...

 

[Tom Bick]

We have two threads going on this at the same time and have posted similar on the other one reminding people that we have Central London and Greater London the two are miles apart regarding beekeeping.

 

[Chris B]

Overstocked/understocked? It's not actually meaningful unless you measure things square mile by square mile.

I wonder if the London BKA are really more worried about competition bringing their high prices down.

 

[richardbees]

Honey yields are going down...

mine aren't!

I can't see what 'green spaces' have to do with it as my bees don't forage on grass or leaves and remember this is the3 same author who recently claimed that bees can't be kept on sites above the second storey - much to the mirth of Paris beekeepers with their famous hives on the roof of L'opera.....

 

[Istel]

There are many factors in yields.
There are far fewer honeybees (I believe) than there were in the 1950s

 

[MuswellMetro]

Not many sheep pigs or cows

you would actual be quite surprised how rural parts of London are...i have hives within the greater london area in the london borough of Barnet and sheep damage to the hives in winter is quite a problem....the shepherd this morning told me they are doubling the size of the flock to 700 sheep

 

[MuswellMetro]

Overstocked/understocked? It's not actually meaningful unless you measure things square mile by square mile.

I wonder if the London BKA are really more worried about competition bringing their high prices down.

You mean that john Hauxwell who is initiated the survey of london beekeepers to confirm that there are too many beekeepers is worried that he wont be able to sell his regent park honey at £16 per lb in Fortnums and masons....no....he has other outlets at £12 a lb in Muswell hill north london

I dont mind, it means locals think my honey at £6lb is cheap

 

[Tom Bick]

You mean that john Hauxwell who is initiated the survey of london beekeepers to confirm that there are too many beekeepers is worried that he wont be able to sell his regent park honey at £16 per lb in Fortnums and masons....no....he has other outlets at £12 a lb in Muswell hill north london

I dont mind, it means locals think my honey at £6lb is cheap

Regents Park met a chap a couple of years ago not the one mentioned above who had 40 hives in the park.

I think Chris B is right the article is coming from a few London beekeepers that can be perhaps considered small time commercial and are been squeezed.

 

[richardbees]

In 1992 I was asked to check out the backyard of a house in central Brixton (behind Bon Marche)

There were about a dozen National hives with only three still occupied. The Polish beekeeper had died the previous year and his widow, who hadn't touched them since, had finally decided she wanted to sell them He wasn't a member of any BKA

My point being that there's a lot of beekeeping in London below the radar - particularly within the immigrant community.

 

[Hivemaker.]

My point being that there's a lot of beekeeping in London below the radar - particularly within the immigrant community.

What Radar? i have never heard of a kind of radar that detects beekeepers.

 

[Lorenz]

My point being that there's a lot of beekeeping in London below the radar - particularly within the immigrant community.

I think that is true Richard.

Your point made me laugh HM. I wonder what a beekeepers' radar would detect.