HELP !!! Bonfires, Smoke and Bees

[For want of a better word]

HELP !​

My out apiary is at the end of a farm yard behind a locked gate, prettymuch out of sight due to a stables block and sheds with farm machinery, horse boxes boats, caravans, motorhomes etc.

However the yard is also used by a clog brain of a scaffolding contractor/ small time builder, who seems to have little respect for anything other than turning a quick dollar!!!!

My fear is he is going to have one giant of a bonfire soon looking at the pile of scrap timber, rotten scaffold planks, tyres etc that are being arranged haphazzardly near to my girls!

I have moved my motorhome in front of the bees in the hope that he does not set the whole lot alight, risking scorching my prized possessions!!!

Should I move my bees?
ANY advice from you Beeks who do not have the luxury of living in a smoke free metropolis would be very much appreciatedbee-

​

smillie

 

[oliver90owner]

Which way is the wind blowing?

RAB

 

[iball]

Phone the council up, it would be illegal for a business to burn rubbish.

 

[MuswellMetro]

HELP !​

ANY advice from you Beeks who do not have the luxury of living in a smoke free metropolis would be very much appreciatedbee-

​

smillie

the smoke control legislation does not cover bonfires, so we are just as suspentable to smoke in London, a damp spring saturday grass bonfire on an allotment can give you all the smoke you will every want

when i had my bees on an allotment i use to get the near bye plot holders to tell me which days they would burn, then lock the girls in for the day

how far away is the pile from the hives, rubber and plastic is worse ( dioxins) wood smoke not to bad

 

[MuswellMetro]

Phone the council up, it would be illegal for a business to burn rubbish.

is it, i thought it was only when a business is burning stuff and admitting black smoke under the clean air acts or on land that does not form part of the business. ie like taking business rubbish home and burning it

the farm i am on burns everthing, except plastic and rubber

 

[Russel]

Talk to your landlord/farmer about your concerns as he may/will have a liability for nuisance, as you have made him aware of the potential problem of fire/smoke damage.

Also speak to the council environmental officer as I'm sure they will take a dim view of tyre burning.

 

[Black Comb]

Don't panic Hopper.
My 2 garden hives are 10' away from boundary wall and neighbour regularly has garden etc. fires in the corner, so 12' away inc. wall. He is having one as I type and the flames are about 8' high. He was there first, long before my bees came along and in the 2 years they've been there never been a problem. Sometimes the smoke is substantial. He does tend to do this when not many bees are flying though and the fires usually last no more than 30 mins.
Think about when beeks heavily smoke bees. A lot more than this goes into the hive.

I suppose if the fire lasts long enough the bees will eventually go but i know from my failed attempts to smoke a swarm out of a wall it must take a lot of smoke to make them abscond.

 

[tonybloke]

is it, i thought it was only when a business is burning stuff and admitting black smoke under the clean air acts or on land that does not form part of the business. ie like taking business rubbish home and burning it

the farm i am on burns everthing, except plastic and rubber

allotments and the law

my speciality!!


http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAnd...eetcleaninglitterandillegaldumping/DG_4018684


basically you are allowed to burn the 'arisings' from within your curtilage
not allowed to import anything for burning (without a waster treatment licence)

 

[madasafish]

I have regular bonfires in the garden and has not seemed to trouble bees -- fire site approx 8 metres from hives.

Admittedly I wait until the wind blows the smoke away from our bees.. which also happens to be the direction of our neighbours - but more importantly - drying washing...

 

[Storm™]

1. Take a camera and photograph everything closely. This means you have evidence of exactly what was burnt if he does a rush job, kills your bees and denies there was anything there but wood.

2 call your local environmental health office. And explain the contents of the rubbish there.

3 be pleasant and explain your situation.

You say your in the Tamarac valley area on your profile if I read it right. But your vocabulary seems American. If you mean England i am quite near you. If your the Devon side he will be required to ensure no danger to the moorland. People who risk fires from downdraft setting the moor alight are very heavily sat on once reported.

If your Cornwall side they have seriously clamped down on waste disposal at the South Petherwin facility. Preventing anyone entering until they sign a disclaimer that it is not building or commercial waste. My parents had to sign one for grass cuttings. The fly tipping has already started.

Not sure if the Environment officer for Devon covers that area of Cornwall but if it is he is brilliant and will com out at a moments notice. And I am fairly sure he will take a dim view of tyre burning and any other hazardous waste. Hence the pictures. At least if you have those you can claim for your bees should you lose them. Personally I would move them. Less hassle in the long run etc plus vindictive builder is not something you want when your away from your hives.

 

[Skyhook]

Everyones talking about smoke, but if it is a seriously big fire, it may be hot enough to toast the bees a few yards away. I would suggest talk to him. If that is his plan, either a) ask him to move the fire over a bit, b) move the bees, or c) offer tpo do some burning for him- that way you could move pieces onto a smaller fire. Definitely not a good idea to p*ss him off if you can help it.

 

[arl]

 

[Russel]

1. Take a camera and photograph everything closely. This means you have evidence of exactly what was burnt if he does a rush job, kills your bees and denies there was anything there but wood.

2 call your local environmental health office. And explain the contents of the rubbish there.

3 be pleasant and explain your situation.

You say your in the Tamarac valley area on your profile if I read it right. But your vocabulary seems American. If you mean England i am quite near you. If your the Devon side he will be required to ensure no danger to the moorland. People who risk fires from downdraft setting the moor alight are very heavily sat on once reported.

If your Cornwall side they have seriously clamped down on waste disposal at the South Petherwin facility. Preventing anyone entering until they sign a disclaimer that it is not building or commercial waste. My parents had to sign one for grass cuttings. The fly tipping has already started.

Not sure if the Environment officer for Devon covers that area of Cornwall but if it is he is brilliant and will com out at a moments notice. And I am fairly sure he will take a dim view of tyre burning and any other hazardous waste. Hence the pictures. At least if you have those you can claim for your bees should you lose them. Personally I would move them. Less hassle in the long run etc plus vindictive builder is not something you want when your away from your hives.

There are usually loads of people on freecycle looking for timber for their wood burners.

Not really sure what genius comes up with these ideas. For some time now our local, privately run, council waste transfer facility, requires that if you use a van or trailer you to either pay by wgt or apply to the council for a permit to drop off your own waste. However, you can take in whatever you like in your car and then they wonder why fly tipping has increased since the above's introduction.
The builder will no doubt chance a small fine rather than the be penalised every time he tries to do the responsible thing and take his waste to the local tip. It costs councils far more to clean up fly tipping than it would if they allowed small builders etc to use the facility and yes I'm aware there will always be some @rse that DGF.

 

[psafloyd]

the smoke control legislation does not cover bonfires, so we are just as suspentable to smoke in London, a damp spring saturday grass bonfire on an allotment can give you all the smoke you will every want

when i had my bees on an allotment i use to get the near bye plot holders to tell me which days they would burn, then lock the girls in for the day

how far away is the pile from the hives, rubber and plastic is worse ( dioxins) wood smoke not to bad

He isn't allowed to burn tyres, though, is he?

 

[Poly Hive]

He is not, nor plastic.

On another matter I remember seeing pics of an paiary which had been too close by half to a massive fire, and although the hives were badly charred the colonies were fine.

Mind you they must have been exhausted fanning that amount of heat away.

PG

 

[MuswellMetro]

He isn't allowed to burn tyres, though, is he?

no tyres are out , but they do, worst offendors recently on that allotement was burning a felted shed, it must have been about ten layers of felt, the smell of burning pitch lasted for days

 

[For want of a better word]

Thanks for allthe advice guys and girls......

I have very long legs and not only have them firmly buried in mud from both sides of the Tamar
(Devon and Cornwall)
But also both sides of the pond, with Cousin beekeeper in Canada ( he is visiting this coming fall because I wrote and told him of some dueling banjo folk around these parts he would fit in with!!)
The bonfire bees are just in the Southhams. but far from civilisation!

I am gonna go move those tires, I think the farmer will not be pleased as it seems they have been taken off his beet clamp!
Also I got hold of one of the horsey people to ask her to phone me if it looked as tho the fire was getting lit, and she suggested the horses may get a bit upset by fires smoke etc and was going to make a complaint to the farmer.... and those horsey people pay a pretty dollar to keep their ponies there!!

Summing up.......... it seems a bit of woodsmoke aint gonna kill em, but a dioxin loaded plastic and tire inferno will choke them up good!

 

[greatbritishhoney]

I'm glad someone raised this because I've got a big pile of Blackthorn slash in the middle of my apiary that I need to get rid of but don't fancy having to move the nasty spiky stuff to another location to burn it. But it's only about 20ft from the nearest hive - is that too close?
Would also be interested to hear how you got on with your problem icanhopit.

 

[djg]

It may be of soome small solace to you that two of my hives live either side of a working chimney 4 stories up on my roof, each some 3 feet away from the chimney stack and with the hive entrance some 3 feet below the chimney-top. We burn wood and smokeless coal on cold winter evenings and there seems to be no ill-effect on the bees. Plenty of breeze that high up, which may help. But maybe the night-time smoke gives the bees little option but to grin and bear it.

Which begs another interesting question : I wonder whether bees gorge on honey when a whiff of smoke comers into the hive at night, since they would not be able to orientate and move off to a new home by darkness ?

Anyhow, if it comes to it, I hope that your bees will be as tolerant of a bit of clean smoke (out of the forest-fire season!) as mine seem to be !

 

[madasafish]

I burn garden rubbish about 10 metres away from our hives - although about 1 metre below the level of the hives.

I just wait until the wind is blowing away from the hives before I light anything (the fact that the washing is in the same direction is of course a secondary consideration).