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Queen Bee
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Were our hives are?

This thread got me thinking: http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4183

I often hear of old hives that have been left for a number of years after the beekeeper has passed away and not told anyone were he/she keeps all his/her hives.

Do you run hives that nobody know's the location of but yourself?
 
we found this years site for OSR together.
good and very valid point though.

PH
 
I often hear of old hives that have been left for a number of years after the beekeeper has passed away and not told anyone were he/she keeps all his/her hives.

Do you run hives that nobody know's the location of but yourself?

I know a couple of beeks doing that. Not becuase they don't want them to know the actual location, but becasue they don't want them to know just how many hives they are now running (e.g. in one case 80 hives instead of 60), which is 33% more than his missus thought he had (and already thought was too much!!!)

Adam
 
I know a couple of beeks doing that. Not becuase they don't want them to know the actual location, but becasue they don't want them to know just how many hives they are now running (e.g. in one case 80 hives instead of 60), which is 33% more than his missus thought he had (and already thought was too much!!!)

Adam

Thats funny i have often told a little lie to the girlfriend as to how many i now have, only to forget and say a different number another time! Used to be fine when they were on several sites she couldn't count them all together however they have all just been moved to a new site and she came down to see the long line of them, so for now she knows the truth........:svengo:
 
I document mine, but not sure if she knows the extent of things.

JD
 
when my grandfather died we thought we had all his hives, until farmers starter to phone up for their "usual" rent..found another 8 hives..most dead from Varroa
 
I document mine, but not sure if she knows the extent of things.

JD

A policy I also have with a sealed envelope ... just in case!
 
I think that there should be register of hive locations detailing who owns them including contact details. I am sure there are many scenarios but one that comes to mind: If the police need to investigate vandalism or (god forbid) aggressive bees then they will need an easy resource to use.

Yes they could try and locate the landowner but I spend many hours a month trying to find out who owns small parcels of land and it is not as easy as one might think. The land used as an out-apiary can be very small and there may be a long standing agreement which may have been formed by the shake of a hand.

How and more importantly who maintains this database is another question as I for one would not want to give any further personal information to the British Pesticide Funded Beekeepers Association.
 
Its it is a thought but as on this forum a number of times members talk of keeping sites secret as a security measure
 
I think that there should be register of hive locations detailing who owns them including contact details. I am sure there are many scenarios but one that comes to mind: If the police need to investigate vandalism or (god forbid) aggressive bees then they will need an easy resource to use.

Yes they could try and locate the landowner but I spend many hours a month trying to find out who owns small parcels of land and it is not as easy as one might think. The land used as an out-apiary can be very small and there may be a long standing agreement which may have been formed by the shake of a hand.

How and more importantly who maintains this database is another question as I for one would not want to give any further personal information to the British Pesticide Funded Beekeepers Association.

I posted this link on your OLD HIVES thread

https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/beebase/index.cfm

The database that you have twice posted about exists already with the NBU actively managing it
 
I posted this link on your OLD HIVES thread

https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/beebase/index.cfm

The database that you have twice posted about exists already with the NBU actively managing it

Have you actually looked at the Beebase site?
Agreed it does hold details of hive locations if someone wishes to input them; however the site is concerned with bee health and does not cover the topics in either of the posts admins or the one I started!

What is required is a database holding details of apiary ownership and contact details that could be accessed by the police or local authorities. This should be kept private until an incident or death of the beekeeper is registered. Just try asking your local police officer if he has heard of Beebase and see what his reply is? The vast majority have no knowledge of The Wildlife and Countryside Act which has been in force since 1981 so I am sure they will have absolutely no idea about a database on bee health.
In defence of them, we cannot expect the authorities to know all the databases around but we do have a responsibility to make the information easily and readily available to them when required.

I also do not think DEFRA (Beebase) are the ideal organisation to be holding this information, just look at the mess they make with the farming community.
 
but we do have a responsibility to make the information easily and readily available to them when required.

What so they can leave the imformation on a train or bus seat,or dump it among a pile of papers in some such place for everyone on the planet to look at. I don't believe they could be trusted with any imformation.
 
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the natural person to contact in cases where you dont know who owns the hives, as was said on your thread, is the RBI. He is the man on the ground that knows all (registered) hives in his area.

he keeps and updates this information on Beebase and if he gets any queries of this nature, the obvious thing for him to do is look up the lat/long of the hives and work out who owns them. where is that different to what you were asking?

so yes, I believe the beebase database does exactly what you are asking that another database should do.


or am I confused and misreading your questions?
 
As per the previous post and others, Regional Bee Inspectors are the right people to contact in such matters.

BeeBase is deliberately 'vague', in as much as exact locations of apiaries are never shown/indicated. Even in the case of disease outbreaks, apiary locations are deliberatley given as 5km square areas, or something similar, perhaps even 10km squares.

All said, Bee Inspectors know the exact location and ownership of a great many apiaries on their patch.
 
there are several points being raised here.
firstly the wife knows exactly what i have and were mainly cause she is well trained in the art of husband torchure ie she stops feeding me and secondly i talk in my sleep and when asked a question i answer it truthfully. she even found out about the pink camal and the dog, which for legal reasons i wished to be kept quite.

as for every one else, well for the bee shed most people could find that out easily enough if they wanted to, just ask and i will meet you there.
untill february i was a part of a trio of beeks setting up a larger set of hives and nucs and only the other two lads i was with knew where they were even the wife was struggling for information

as for bee base and the like and or registaring , thats a massive no no for me did once , it did me no favours , no harm but no favours and i dont trust any thing kept on there systems either
 
If I had a few sites It will be in my interest to tell people the location as I have enough difficulty finding the car after being in the supermarket
 
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