Squatters

[Sootydog]

Due to illness, I had to leave my out-apiary for approx 3 seasons. The bees eventually dissappeared. Not suprising really. Last week I bought a nuc to start over again and went to apiary to pick up some kit only to find that someone had put bees in one of my hives. This is not a stray swarm, the hive has been tided up. This was confirmed by the land owner. If I can't find out who this other person is or they fail to contact me.... what can I do?? Any ideas?? (It's a strong colony on double brood boxes)

 

[Adam]

Due to illness, I had to leave my out-apiary for approx 3 seasons. The bees eventually dissappeared. Not suprising really. Last week I bought a nuc to start over again and went to apiary to pick up some kit only to find that someone had put bees in one of my hives. This is not a stray swarm, the hive has been tided up. This was confirmed by the land owner. If I can't find out who this other person is or they fail to contact me.... what can I do?? Any ideas?? (It's a strong colony on double brood boxes)

Well it's between you and the landowner. If it was me, I'd move them pretty damn quick before the other beekeeper claims ownership. You could, of course, leave a notice up saying who you are and could they remove their colony. Surely the landowner has some clue who they are?

Adam

 

[northernsoul]

Well I wouldn't necessarily think there's anything sinister here. A local beek as obviously seen your empty and unused hives and made use of them. For all you know he/she may have left a note on them seeking permission for the last couple of years.

To be honest I'd be tempted to leave a note on the hive, explaining the situation and asking if the other beek wanted to share the apiary with you.

Other things are of course available such as moving the hives to a new site with the bees, torching the hives or even seeking legal action. You might have more fun and make a friend for life if you do the former suggestion.

Good luck

 

[Moggs]

Put a tiny sign up in front of the entrance "Statutory Notice of Eviction" giving the bees 14 days notice to buzz off. The writing should be quite small.

 

[broandy]

Due to illness, I had to leave my out-apiary for approx 3 seasons. The bees eventually dissappeared. Not suprising really. Last week I bought a nuc to start over again and went to apiary to pick up some kit only to find that someone had put bees in one of my hives. This is not a stray swarm, the hive has been tided up. This was confirmed by the land owner. If I can't find out who this other person is or they fail to contact me.... what can I do?? Any ideas?? (It's a strong colony on double brood boxes)

Your Hive your bees

 

[Midland Beek]

I would contact your Regional Bee Inspector and ask for his/her advice on this matter. There is in fact a formal abandoned hive procedure, and your RBI might have been involved in this process in respect of your apiary, if any such procedure occured.

You know there is a type of amateur beekeeper who cannot tell the difference between someone's aging and tatty hives, and someone's abandoned apiary. If they have taken your property from the site they are quite possibly guilty of the offence of Taking Without the Owner's Consent, and pointing this matter out to them might secure the return of your equipment. You could leave a note on the hive/under the crownboard.

 

[steve1958]

The Hive belongs to you

No one owns the Bees, they are wild insects.

However
I think I would first ask the landowner if they know who is using the Hive
Secondly contact the person and discuss the situation (Your Hive, His Bees).
I would hope you feel able to give the guy some time to obtain another Hive to move the Bees into, and then maybe share the site.
If he has been given permission to place Bees on the site it could be you that has to find somewhere else.

If the land owner does not know who the person is then clearly they are trespassing on his land, so he has a right to request a pest controller (or Bee keeper ) come and remove the swarm of Bees.

 

[Chris B]

Sounds to me like the landlord gave permission to someone but failed to get contact details. Likewise he didn't have your contact details either otherwise this wouldn't have happened. You might consider yourself lucky the hives hadn't rotted or been scrapped by the landlord. And buying a nuc to go into hives you haven't seen for 3 years is a little rash.

The hives are yours no question. But the other beekeeper has probably taken them on in good faith. I think you need to be accomodating and ask for your kit nicely. What about the frames?

Were you previously registered on BeeBase? If so the squatter has no grounds for claiming they took reasonable steps to contact you.

 

[Winker]

The Hive belongs to you

No one owns the Bees, they are wild insects.

I bought my bees so they do belong to me! that's like saying no one owns that horse in the field its a wild animal.

 

[Teemore]

By law, once a bee is out of your sight it is ferae naturae - a wild animal - and belongs to no one.

 

[Midland Beek]

No one owns the Bees, they are wild insects.:

Beekeepers own the bees that are in their hives. That's why beeks go to the trouble of getting liability insurance to cover themselves if their bees sting anyone near their hives. And if beekeepers didn't actually own the bees in their possession on what grounds would the have to sell a nuc or a stock?

 

[Kev]

Hi,
Have you tried phoning the Secretary of the your local association? They may know who it is. Ours seems to know everyone and where they keep their bees. If he does ask him to pass your number/email on to them so you can discuss sharing the apiary. I would keep it friendly, much better to make a friend than force them to find somewhere else.

Kev

 

[DanBee]

I agree in this case that you have invited trouble by neglecting the hives and by not keeping in touch with the landowner. At the very least now you should pin a polite card with your contact details under the roof of each hive, and photograph them in situ, but that won't stop them walking. Are they marked to aid identification? Difficult to just shift them if the bees were introduced rather than a swarm - but how to prove this either way though?

Probably an innocent misunderstanding, but beware assuming that this is the case. Plymouth has been plagued for twenty years by an individual who steals hives by claiming they are neglected, telling the landowner that they are a liability as such and need to be sorted out, then removing them for "safe care".

These are not neglected hives; in the three instances that I know of, the hives were regularly inspected but whole apiaries were suddenly cleared out in this fashion. When the landlord is a large organisation, it is common for estate managers to come and go over the years, and for beekeepers' details to be lost. Somebody coming in offering to help sort out a 'problem' can understandably be welcomed by a new manager.

The police were not interested as they claimed it was a civil matter, and Devon Beekeepers Association were not interested because they said it was a matter between individuals; the suspect individual also held a County-level role in DBKA for many years, read into that what you will.

Assume that the worst will happen you will be left on your own to find and repossess the equipment if it disappears.

The BBKA produces a leaflet entitled "Abandoned Hives" which provides further guidance on how to deal with apparently forgotten hives/colonies.

 

[greatbritishhoney]

It seems clear to me that the hives are your property whether they have been temporarily abandoned or not.
Your property remains your property (as long as you can prove it was yours in the first place) until you sell or give it to someone else. Simple as that.

Obviously, the bees are a different matter. Whether they are "wild" or not, they are not the original bees that you had on site and therefore you have no claim to them.

I'd recommend what others have suggested - leave a friendly notice on the hive explaining the situation and asking them to contact you to arrange the return of the hive body. I'd also remove any empty hives unless they go walkies (take photos of the whole process so that there is no doubt about what happened).
As a back-up you could always pop into your local police station, explain the situation and ask for advice.

 

[Sootydog]

Thanks to everyone who have responded. I have enough ideas now so I guess we can close this thread. I'm a reasonable chap and would be happy to share on a temporary basis. Let's hope my squatter is as reasonable.

 

[VEG]

Well you could at least let us know the outcome before trying to close this thread as it may help others out.

 

[Sootydog]

Again, thanks to everyone. I didn't want to over complicate this to start with but here goes........
The old frames were removed a year or so ago and scrapped off (full of moth and mice). When I visited last weekend, my old hives were all nicely stacked up and all the wood work cleaned and treated just ready to use. I'm happy to share my wood work (I have enough for 10 hives and only one nuc to put in them) however just moving in and staking a claim (even with the land owners permission) is at best a bit of a cheek. Cleaning my old hives, even innocently, a bit strange. I thought I was about to lose a lot of equipment so I have cleaned out the apiary apart from the one with bees in. I have a christian name from the land owner but that's about it. I would like to think that this is just one big mis-understanding but..........

 

[jimbeekeeper]

Very interested to know the outcome.

As said above leave you contact details under the roof, and a brief note.

Better to be surprised by this than finding them all smashed up by vandals?

 

[Somerford]

This is an interesting thread....last year I had a call from a very respectable family, living close to Malmesbury who had a swarm from a chimney colony. We got talking and the wife said well if you like bees, there's a colony in a hive on their land beside an old stable block that I could have.

I was intrigued. I opened it and found a double brood chamber with 50% frames, 50% wild comb, and shut it up. It was leaning more than the tower of pisa and I corrected that, cleared the entrance and said to them I had to leave it as it wasn't mine, nor theirs to give as it obviously belonged to someone at some point (not them!). I left a note under the roof and this thread has reminded me I need to go back and have a look-see to see if it has had a response !

The family want it either managed, or removed......I'll take a look this weekend !

(I have put word around the local beekeepers too, and so far silence ..)

regards

S

 

[mystil]

Very interested to see what happens! Mentioned you situation at our local meeting (saying no names) and they were not surprised that this had occurred. Maybe quite common??