law

[pdb]

hello i dont know if this is the right place to ask but i am just starting to keep bees and have been building my own hives and i placed them in the garden and one person next door said theres a law out saying i cant keep beers in my garden i live in a Terraced house my garden backs on to a small park ive got six feet high fence all around can any one help before i spend any more money thank you

 

[Cussword]

I don't believe that there's a law, but it's not a good start if your neighbour is kicking off before you started.

 

[madasafish]

There may be bylaws - check with your council

If you rent your property, check your rental agreement. If you own it, check there are no restrictions in your deeds (unlikely).

And talk to your neighbours first...if they object before you get hives, you can reason with them. If they object when you have bees, you could face disputes with neighbours and complaints to the council..

 

[enrico]

Trust me it will go from bad to worse! Try and find an apiary away from your house. A corner of any farmers field, a piece of national trust land, a large garden, an alotment. Anywhere..... The first swarm and you will have petitions through your door. Sadly neighbours will never understand unless they are on side before you start!
E

 

[Zante]

The Beekeeper and his/her Neighbours.
Fundamental principle: every landowner can have reasonable use and enjoyment of his/her property
subject to any specific restrictions e.g. in case of tenant, tenancy agreement, terms of planning permission,
etc. However, a landowner cannot exercise this right [in the case of a beekeeper, the beekeeper] if to do so
would unreasonably restrict his neighbour’s enjoyment of his/her property. It follows that beekeeping is no
different from any other activity of mankind; you look to the effect of the activity on the neighbour and if it is,
or becomes, inappropriate, the law will intervene. There are few reported law cases concerning bees and
neighbours but here are some cases [both from UK and overseas] which have considered liability between
the beekeeper and his neighbour

http://www.beekeeping.org.uk/bee_law.pdf

There is also a list of lawsuit cases some where the beekeper lost, some where the beekeper won, but in general it looks like if you're a conscientious beekeeper the law will be on your side, although as mentioned you might want check for local bylaws.

Obviously that is the legal side of matters, there also is the matter of good neighbourhood. You don't want to get into a dispute with your neighbours before you even start.

Look for an out apiary. It is always good to have a contingency plan, even if you end up not needing it. In the meantime talk to your neighbour and see what his real objections are. If he didn't have objections of his own he'd be unlikely to be citing laws (real or made up) to stop you from having bees.

 

[REDWOOD]

are you on good terms with your neighbours ? we don't know how it was said, if its not a neighbour problem then there is no law unless they become a public nuance.

 

[pargyle]

Yep ... if it's like that now it will only get worse .. your neigbour will blame your bees for any bite, sting or even noise that any insect inflicts on them, their children, their visitors and anyone else in the vicinity. You would need very broad shoulders to persue your quest to keep bees with that sword of Damocles hanging over your head ...

 

[For want of a better word]

Probability the only things neighbors can do is prove neglect on your part.. or Private nuisance... or both..... he would need to get a cohort of neighbors together to go for public nuisance.

Either way I would move the bees somewhere accessible but away from people!.. and start keeping chickens.. a noisey cock is afantastic way to annoy an unpleasant neighbor.

Either way HIS costs would be punative... and yours if you decided to defend,
Have you ever met a poor Barrister?

Yeghes da

 

[bontbee]

start keeping chickens.. a noisey cock is afantastic way to annoy an unpleasant neighbor.

Either way HIS costs would be punative... and yours if you decided to defend,
Have you ever met a poor Barrister?

Same applies to chickens as to bees. The complainant doesn't need a barrister! If it can be demonstrated that your activity is affecting your neighbour's enjoyment of their property, eg by reason of noise, smell, swarms, stings* etc, the council has the power to service notice on you to remove the source of your neighbour's complaint. I've known it happen because of chooks and bees.

I know the saying "prove it was my bee", but cases might be/are cooked up - I know, you wouldn't believe anyone would be so dishonest

 

[For want of a better word]

Same applies to chickens as to bees
*
Not it seems if you live in a predominately RURAL area........

However Cornwall Council come down quite heavily on anyone lighting smokey bonfires on a regular basis... them sends you a letter!!!!

Yeghes da

 

[For want of a better word]

"prove it was my bee"

If the stingee can find and keep the sting a simple DNA test (£160) could match it to a specific colony ( quite a few more £160s...) or visa vers PROVE it was not a specific colony!

I can not wait for Microsoft to produce a pocket DNA analyser... sure The Sanger Institute are working on it right now!!!

Yeghes da

 

[bpmurray]

Rather than thinking about the law, you need to work with your neighbour. Why are they objecting? Do they think that bees hunt down people to sting them? That's actually not an uncommon idea - you need to calm their fears and point out that bees are really only interested in the hive and have zero interest in them. You can also point out the advantages to them - improved quality and quantity of fruit/veg/flowers.

If all that fails to calm them, you can point out that it isn't forbidden by law despite what they may think. One thing to try is to not put any bees in the hives for a while: a friend tried this and, after neighbourly complaints, The Man From The Council visited and was hugely entertained to see that the hives were, in fact, empty.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Same applies to chickens as to bees
*
Not it seems if you live in a predominately RURAL area

Yeghes da

When I lived in a very rural area of Cumbria I had the EHO threaten action over my cockerel. I canvassed my neighbours the nearest being some 100 metres away before I got him and somebody still complained. I refused to get rid of him and he used to sleep in the house undercroft joining his ladies during the day to free range in the fields. He still crowed but seemingly that is allowed in the day.
with others. It will get worse with the bees. How about advertising with your BKA and in shop/PO window for somewhere to put them

 

[alldigging]

hello i dont know if this is the right place to ask but i am just starting to keep bees and have been building my own hives and i placed them in the garden and one person next door said theres a law out saying i cant keep beers in my garden i live in a Terraced house my garden backs on to a small park ive got six feet high fence all around can any one help before i spend any more money thank you

Bad neighbours don't improve.
But they have to show a nuisance before EH can tell you to move them and taking you to court for it.
But a neighbour dispute has to be declared if you sell your home so if you own then you are making your future house selling harder.

Many of the bee law cases involve large numbers of hives (I think 16+ in a lot of them) and poor bee management.

You could find alternative space for your hives but leave one empty one in the garden for them to complain about.

And the joyous thing is about EH and all the other council departments is the complainant's privacy is protected fully so you never know who has complained about you.

 

[Swarm]

Best for everyone concerned is an out apiary, people are just people and they will let you down.

 

[madasafish]

I agree with the above: BUT if you are a awful beekeeper and let your bees swarm and they land in your neighbour's garden etc ... they may object. A friend of mine had that situation, he could not cope with swarming. His neighbours objected - so he sold his bees and gave up.

Are you experienced with bees? If not, get some practical experience first with your local Beekeeping Association.

Have you been stung by bees before? If not, get stung. If you are intolerant of bee venom, you are unlikely to enjoy keeping bees at best and may die at worst.

 

[pdb]

thank you all i now know theres no law it all started two years ago i a had chickens and the noise scard there daughter so i found new home for them next day she left her husband so now i was putting hives out and the husband put his head over the fence and told me his house is up for sale he saw hives and said theres a law and he turned away and left all in a good way not nasty at all

 

[Swarm]

But he still had to point it out, even though he was wrong.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Probably worried that prospective buyers may be put off with the thought of beehives nextdoor

 

[chrisb]

hope the house sells and you get a beek as a new neighbor