Suitable Garden?

[youngyoungs]

they even try find you a suitable location if having them at home is not an option..

A much better option, IMO

My first experience with bees was by offering space to someone who's garden was too small for her to keep bees at home.

Follow the advice given in the posts, you will find a site for your bees and yes, beekeeping is addictive!

 

[BrianO]

Good advice

As a result of same I have decided to locate elsewhere, was going to put a hive in my Garden, but after doing some homework , especially here realise space is needed .

Thanks

Brian.

 

[BeeP]

I'd love to have bees in my garden, but the consensus seems to be not to, so can I ask those experienced beeks where you should locate them? How do you manage security of your hives if they are "out of sight"?

 

[enrico]

There are plenty of corners of fields that are not obvious. Small areas of woodland, when yoy start looking and asking you will be surprised. Farmers will willingly give you an area. Depends where you live when you mention security!
A risk we all take.
E

 

[Andy Duff]

I am completely anti bees in gardens. As in small suburban type patches, acres of garden is another matter entirely.

When it goes wrong, and it will.... the consequences can be extremely serious. If it's your family then it's not so bad but when neighbours get hammered it gets very difficult indeed.

I would urge you to think very seriously indeed about it.

PH

Trust me it will go horribly wrong as I found out on our allotment site. Bees and the public do not mix, your neighbours have the right to enjoy their gardens without having bees imposed on them.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

It seems only fair to point out that this is only one point of view.

There are many on the Forum who have a different view and a different experience.

The trouble is that the anti-garden message is rapidly taking on an air of moral superiority which doesn't allow more rational and balanced discussion.

Dusty

 

[PBee]

It seems only fair to point out that this is only one point of view.

There are many on the Forum who have a different view and a different experience.

The trouble is that the anti-garden message is rapidly taking on an air of moral superiority which doesn't allow more rational and balanced discussion.

Dusty

Good docile bees and the experience to keep the queen at home and garden bees are no problem in most situations. I have a friend kept a hive right outside his front door - the postman kept coming.

 

[sjt]

I kept 2 hives of bees in my quite large garden for over a year, no problem. The neighbour at the bottom of the garden was very positive about them ....until his adult daughter was stung one day, collapsed and taken to hospital. It may not have been by one of mine but I was not prepared to take that risk, the bees had to be moved. You think it will never happen but what if it does?
I was unhappy about moving them but if it the positions had been reversed and it had been my daughter I too would have asked for them to be moved.

 

[alanf]

It seems only fair to point out that this is only one point of view.

There are many on the Forum who have a different view and a different experience.

The trouble is that the anti-garden message is rapidly taking on an air of moral superiority which doesn't allow more rational and balanced discussion.

Dusty

Most suburban and urban BKA members have been keeping bees in gardens and allotments since the BKAs were founded in the early 20th century.

Beekeepers do need to be mindful of neighbours and be prepared to take action to head off or remedy problems. Thousands of hives have been kept for many years without serious incident. For instance, NBU estimate over 3000 colonies in the Greater London area. A large majority of those are in small apiaries and within 100m of houses or other inhabited buildings.

 

[itma]

Most suburban and urban BKA members have been keeping bees in gardens and allotments since the BKAs were founded in the early 20th century.

Beekeepers do need to be mindful of neighbours and be prepared to take action to head off or remedy problems. Thousands of hives have been kept for many years without serious incident. For instance, NBU estimate over 3000 colonies in the Greater London area. A large majority of those are in small apiaries and within 100m of houses or other inhabited buildings.

It is possible to keep bees (happily) in gardens (or on urban rooftops).

But you *do* need to be utterly intolerant of any stroppiness whatsoever in your bees. Which means keeping right on top of the situation, at all times.
And having a 'Plan B' alternative.
And all the usual stuff about siting a hive where the 'traffic' isn't going to intersect human passage. High hedges (head-high at least) are excellent, but cast (non-ideal) shade. Hence some using netting 'cages' (with an open top) around their hives.

Urban and suburban hobby beekeeping is perfectly possible.
Running a dozen hives from the postage stamp back yard found on so many developments nowadays would however be wildly over-ambitious, as even I would agree!


There is a certain (tiny) percentage of the population that is highly sensitive to beestings.
Knowing that, if you keep these "dangerous creatures" anywhere at all you must realise that you are putting the susceptible at risk - whether they are two houses or two kilometres away.
Personally, I think its a small risk, and a general one. And one that those that sadly are wildly susceptible to are running every day.
Let me give an analogy. If you ran a pub, would you sell peanuts? Some people have to be hospitalised after accidental contact with peanuts. How would you feel if someone had to be hospitalised as a result of a peanut you had sold?
How about if you were a chef and included peanuts in something in your restaurant? Who is responsible if someone is hospitalised?

One can keep bees responsibly in a garden, just as one can run a restaurant or a pub with peanuts.

 

[PBee]

Let me give an analogy. If you ran a pub, would you sell peanuts? Some people have to be hospitalised after accidental contact with peanuts. How would you feel if someone had to be hospitalised as a result of a peanut you had sold?
How about if you were a chef and included peanuts in something in your restaurant? Who is responsible if someone is hospitalised?

One can keep bees responsibly in a garden, just as one can run a restaurant or a pub with peanuts.

You're talking about Irish tapas there.
Every pub in Ireland, and there are one or two, has a dispenser with KP peanuts and tayto crisps up behind the counter. If you said allergic reaction to a barman he'd give you a strange look and say 'Whut' ????

 

[priono]

I saw a garden in central london recently: approx 8yards by 30 and he had 3 hives with 3 supers on each. the back of the hives faced the wall to the neighbour which i actually visited and you didnt see a single bee in his garden

 

[Luminos]

You're talking about Irish tapas there.
Every pub in Ireland, and there are one or two, has a dispenser with KP peanuts and tayto crisps up behind the counter. If you said allergic reaction to a barman he'd give you a strange look and say 'Whut' ????

Pretty much the same here

 

[itma]

And I should have said that, IMHO, Ozzi's (the OP's) garden setting doesn't really sound too good. I'd like to know what there was between the various levels of his garden. Bees would be better at the highest level (which may not be possible.) And being level with the lowest level of the neighbours' gardens sounds awkward too. Then there's the dog.
The high trees sound to me like a positive, not a negative.
Photos would help to form a judgement.
But a visit from an urban-savvy (but not too gung-ho) beek would be far and away the best idea.

 

[thorn]

Ignore the "never in a garden" bunch. If you feel your garden is suitable after discussing it with some experienced beekeepers from your local society, go ahead. Yes, bees can get nasty, but if the hives are pointing away from your patio and from where your neighbours usually sit, and if there's something to encourage them to fly up when leaving the hive, it's unlikely you'll have any problems beyond the occasional angry guard bee who follows you up the garden after an inspection and who then hangs around for a while looking for someone to vent her spleen on (do bees have spleens?).

On the plus side for garden hives, I've trained my bees to attack my daughter's unsuitable boyfriend. He doesn't come round too often now.

 

[Poly Hive]

Which just goes to show what some think they know.

If a hive goes berserk in a garden and it can and does happen do you yes you want to be responsible for your neighbour getting severely stung, and their pet dog stung to death?

Do you?

Now have a damn good think about that one because it has happened to me.

On a good day I reckon I know a bit about bees, and it went totally pear shaped out the blue.

Your call, just remember what can happen can be VERY serious, and it's you who will be in court.

PH

 

[ratcatcher]

I'm a bit on the fence here, for saying yes or no, as I have two hives in my garden, Im a first year bee keeper, and thankfully I have an out apiary, plus another new one to start next year, the bees in my garden are from CAST SWARMS, and I think thats the difference, a hive with perhaps 3000 bees in, are in my eyes easier to manage than a hive with 50,000 bees, the bees in my garden will be over wintered and then transferred to the out apiarys, splits or caught cast swarms will only be housed in the garden,

 

[smithhive]

Which just goes to show what some think they know.

If a hive goes berserk in a garden and it can and does happen do you yes you want to be responsible for your neighbour getting severely stung, and their pet dog stung to death?

Do you?

Now have a damn good think about that one because it has happened to me.

On a good day I reckon I know a bit about bees, and it went totally pear shaped out the blue.

Your call, just remember what can happen can be VERY serious, and it's you who will be in court.

PH

Absolutely PH

Several years ago I was working bees on OSR and a colony went "beserk" on me. A few days later I learnt that a couple walking up a country lane about a 100 yards away had to flee as this was happening. They each took some stings and decided to take legal advice. Luckily for me the legal man they approached knew me personally and the matter was resolved with an apology and a few jars of honey.

If this had gone to court I do not know how I would have fared. Could they have proved it was my bees that had been involved? What penalties could I have faced?........BUT more importantly, what if they had children with them or if they had been too old or infirm to escape?

I appreciate that life itself is a risk and we shouldn't be so frightened that we never dare do anything - I still have some bees too close to public rights of way but I do know that Poly Hive has a very valid point and we should all listen!!!

A truly angry colony of bees is an awesome force.

 

[thorn]

Which just goes to show what some think they know.

If a hive goes berserk in a garden and it can and does happen do you yes you want to be responsible for your neighbour getting severely stung, and their pet dog stung to death?

Do you?

Now have a damn good think about that one because it has happened to me.

On a good day I reckon I know a bit about bees, and it went totally pear shaped out the blue.

Your call, just remember what can happen can be VERY serious, and it's you who will be in court.

PH

Accidents happen in all areas of life. Just because it happened to you does not make it a common occurrence. I risked flying to Italy last week despite having heard about plane crashes. And only today I crossed the road, even though I heard that someone got knocked down on that stretch of road just last week.

 

[smithhive]

Accidents happen in all areas of life. Just because it happened to you does not make it a common occurrence. I risked flying to Italy last week despite having heard about plane crashes. And only today I crossed the road, even though I heard that someone got knocked down on that stretch of road just last week.

Yes ACCIDENTS but according to an Accident Investigation policeman I know there is no such thing as a pure accident - always somebodies fault.