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badger

New Bee
Joined
Dec 16, 2009
Messages
13
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0
Location
Oxfordshire
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
3
I live in a what I would call a normal three bed semi which does have a good size garden tho, with four neighbours gardens along the side of the right hand side of my house/garden.
Now I have been keeping bees in this garden for three years and the hive has always been in the summerhouse with its entrance out the side at about three foot from my fence.
The other side of this fence is a moaning neighbour, if I moved he would moan.
Now today his huneysuckle was in full flower and loving the sun and my bees were loving his honeysuckle so he told me and there were that many in his garden he wants me to move my hive or he is going to get enviormental health involved.
Does anyone know if he can make me move my hive ?
 
nowt he can do about the bees on his flowers but it looks like this will escalate as he seems the type to do so. I would recommend finding an out apiary, as neighbour arguments can lead to all sorts.
 
Find an out apiary within three miles and he'll still have bees on his flowers....:-(
 
My garden has 'end on' neighbours like yours. One 'complaint' from a neighbour of 35 years, a couple years ago - she said they were noisy on a hot sunny day as she couild hear them buzzing away. Didn't trouble her apart from that.

Another only saw any bees when there were a couple swarms, which settled in the same place, each time, in his garden. He just knocked on my door and asked me if I wanted them back. He said he could never remember a bee inside his house in the eight years of them being there.

RAB
 
I have found an out apairy, but did want to keep them in the garden as they do give me so much joy watching then come and go.
The neighbouring fence is six foot high so the bees are up and away above his head hieght.
Even if I moved it to the front of my house I cant stop the bees going on his plants.
Just wondered if there was a case and he could make me move it?
Regards
 
:rofl:

EH will probably tell you to move the hive, but if they've any sense they'll realise he'll still get someone's bees on his honeysuckle no matter how far you move yours.

His only certain solution is to cut the honeysuckle down.
 
just tell him your bees dont like honey suckle lol
 
never seen honey bees on honeysuckle, the flowers are too deep? seen plenty of bumbles on it, though
 
very unlikely EV Helath will be interested. They are far too busy with food isseus.

However you have a bad neighbour and things will probably only go downhill.

It is difficult for us in the craft to understand but some do have a real "thing" about insects and as you are a beekeeper you are the obvious target.

I would move the bees out and tell him you have and further invite him to see the empty spot. Then if he has issues with his plants give him the same advice I gave a *very paranoid* young mum when she was frit over the bees on her cotoneaster. Cut it down. Oddly she put the phone down on me... *shrug*

PH
 
been in my house for 15 yrs, not once has the neighbour looked over the fence to chat.

What happens today, 2 days after I put my 'empty' hive in it's home - he pops up and starts chatting, then "oh what's that" - "a beehive" i say!

he wasn't fazed anyway, quite interested and I did promise him a jar so looks like it will be ok. We'll see when i actually get some bees.
 
been in my house for 15 yrs, not once has the neighbour looked over the fence to chat.

What happens today, 2 days after I put my 'empty' hive in it's home - he pops up and starts chatting, then "oh what's that" - "a beehive" i say!

he wasn't fazed anyway, quite interested and I did promise him a jar so looks like it will be ok. We'll see when i actually get some bees.
Result.

Possibly another budding neighbourhood beek.

I got a big buzz, today, while explaining to someone why we needed to put a QE between a brood box and a super. Another one hooked. She'll be joining in on inspections and, before long, I'm sure will have a colony of her own in the
farm's little apiary.
 
I have honeysuckle in my garden and my bees never look at it.
Can you actually see the bees on his honeysuckle?.... Like PH said, they might not be honey bees.

I have been reported to the council because bees made a mess on a neighbour's car. Neighbour the other side says she never sees them. Council here has no rules saying you cant keep bees in your garden but there are rules regarding keeping them on allotments.
 
I have been reported to the council because bees made a mess on a neighbour's car. Neighbour the other side says she never sees them. Council here has no rules saying you cant keep bees in your garden but there are rules regarding keeping them on allotments.

While my posts usually tell people to stop fantasising about being dragged through the courts because their bee has stung someone, I must now warn you about a real possibility, that you may receive an abatement notice from your local council if your bees are causing a statutory notice under the terms of the Environmental Protection Act. If you don't abate the nuisance you can be prosecuted. In the case of a beekeeper with one or two hives in his garden, such a notice is unlikely to be triggered by the odd toiletting flight, but I seem to recall (and I can't lay my hands on the case) that a commercial beekeeper once received an abatement notice for that very reason. Forty hives messing on the neighbours' cars, laundry etc would be a bit of a nuisance. It would not be proportionate in the case of the occasional flight in the spring from one or two hives.
When my car was new and shiny I found that one spring it was covered with little marks. In my pre-bees innocence I blamed pollen from the tree I parked under in the office car park. I couldn't shift the stuff, no matter what I tried, and in the end had to pay a considerable sum to a professional bodywork specialist. Now I know the cause. There must have hives somewhere nearby because later that year a swarm arrived in the carpark. It was watching a beekeeper collect them that sparked my interest.
Toiletting is only one of the nuisances that may give rise to a statutory nuisance. Regular stinging of neighbours is another.
Your neighbours have a right to bring a civil action in the County Court for private nuisance, but given the uncertainty of such an action, and the amount that the likes of me would charge, that'll rarely happen. Don't confuse it with the action the council could bring if an abatement nuisance is not complied with.
If in doubt, go pay a solicitor to advise you. You know it makes sense.
 
Your neighbors have a right to bring a civil action in the County Court for private nuisance, but given the uncertainty of such an action, and the amount that the likes of me ( I presume solicitor / barrister ) would charge, that'll rarely happen

A cautionary tale....

In 1980s when I lived in a very small hamlet in Surrey, a Private nuisance case against a Tenant Farmer keeping sheep in a field with a boundary abutting the curtalage of a recently moved in townie to a once farm laborer's cottage cost £38000 to take to court, the recently moved in townie ended up paying all the costs and moved back to town. The Local rag had the headline that he was BAAAAKING MAD !

A Public Nuisance case brought by a cohort of families living next door to a site recently acquired by a Transport contractor moving heavy vehicle full of landfill etc is ongoing... local council gave ( sold!) the contractor the license to operate.... how much will that cost when it ends up before the judiciary?

Mediation is the way forward with an unreasonable neighbor.. some Councils employ a team specifically to do just that ( usually over Trees, Hedges and minor boundary disputes... and occasional barking dog!)
 
Upset because of insects on his flowers? The guy wants putting out of his misery along with many others. What an arsehole
 
I have honeysuckle in my garden and my bees never look at it.
Can you actually see the bees on his honeysuckle?.... Like PH said, they might not be honey bees.

I have been reported to the council because bees made a mess on a neighbour's car.

Lucky cows can't fly l:)l
 

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