Ouch!

It came back to me that a talk I gave about beekeeping in London seems to have gone down badly with some natural beekeepers. I thought it was just common sense and not very contentious. I was talking about if you keep bees in London it is important not to keep aggressive bees and it is important to inspect for diseases (because we are keeping so many bees in London now - we are really cheek by jowl) and it is important to try to do your absolute best to avoid your bees swarming. These things seem self evident. I don't think it is fair on the bees, to the local community or to other beekeeprs to do otherwise.

Through word of mouth this has seemingly been reinterpreted as me saying that I am against natural beekeeping and the use of top bar hives, which is not true. I don't care what kind of box people keep their bees in as long as the beekeeping is appropriate for the context. In an urban environment aggressive strains, swarming bees and allowing disease and pests (including varroa) to proliferate are just wrong.

It still upset me to think that I inadvertently have upset people I have never even spoken to.

Hey Ho!

 

[Widdershins]

I think no matter what you included in your talk, people will always interpret it how they see fit, and of course, chinese whispers will happen....chin up, Im sure others will realise that a different spin has been put on things