Would you call this irresponsible?

[Zante]

I was going for a walk with my mother in the countryside this afternoon, and turning a corner I was faced with 36 hives, all in a row right after the corner, along the wall of an abandoned house.

The bees were very aggressive and i got stung at least three times (once on an ear and at least twice on my head) before I could realise the situation and warn my mother to turn back.

Could scarcity of forage make them aggressive? I can't imagine anyone putting up with such aggressive bees.

 

[Griffo]

I can't see anybody getting away with this for long in the UK but Italy is Italy.

 

[For want of a better word]

Irresponsible ?

And there we go.. probably would have been blamed on F2 outmatings with Native bees in UK !

Yeghes da

 

[snelgrove]

A cautionary bees at work sign would be sufficient to enable anyone to avoid the area unless it's a public right of way. 36 hives is alot of bees, you were able to count the hives, three stings. There not the best tempered

 

[Zante]

A cautionary bees at work sign would be sufficient to enable anyone to avoid the area unless it's a public right of way. 36 hives is alot of bees, you were able to count the hives, three stings. There not the best tempered

I wasn't able to count the hives, but we continued our walk on another path and further on I spotted them from a distance and then I counted them.

It was more of something like "oh... hives... there's a few of them, and bees are active... hmm.. I'm a bit close here... OW! RUN AWAY!"

... and yes, it is a public right of way, just used mostly by the cars of the people who live further on.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Maybe they are there for more than honey collecting?

 

[Into the lions den]

Well, never mind the bees being aggressive or not, we don't know enough about the situation to reach a conclusion on that (have they been disturbed in the last hour for example, you say people drive past them as its a right of way...vehicles going past within a metre or two of their door can have then on edge). Was it an actual unprovoked attack or did you stray into their flightpath? Bees can get shirty in marginal conditions if they suddenly find themselves in your hair for example.

I have walked around among countless apiaries in Italy and not encountered aggression.

However, taking you post at face value, that the bees, in a significant number, have been placed on a right of way, IS irresponsible and wrong.

As a right of way, with vehicle access along it, is wrong for the public and wrong for the bees. They will dislike the disturbance every bit as much as the people will.

 

[Zante]

Well, never mind the bees being aggressive or not, we don't know enough about the situation to reach a conclusion on that (have they been disturbed in the last hour for example, you say people drive past them as its a right of way...vehicles going past within a metre or two of their door can have then on edge). Was it an actual unprovoked attack or did you stray into their flightpath? Bees can get shirty in marginal conditions if they suddenly find themselves in your hair for example.

I have walked around among countless apiaries in Italy and not encountered aggression.

However, taking you post at face value, that the bees, in a significant number, have been placed on a right of way, IS irresponsible and wrong.

As a right of way, with vehicle access along it, is wrong for the public and wrong for the bees. They will dislike the disturbance every bit as much as the people will.

It is just a few converted farmhouses, maybe three or four families total living up that road, and traffic is quite occasional, and the hives are a couple of meters from where the cars pass, still too close.

... I don't know, maybe they were indeed on edge because a couple of cars had recently passed (I didn't see them, but it could be the case), and I did approach them from the side at no more than a couple of meters distance, as that's where they were placed with respect to the path.

The path we were walking on is on the side of this abandoned building and joins the dirt road at a right angle just past the corner of the building and the hives were along the wall running alongside the dirt road.

It just strikes me as... I don't know... 36 hives seem a lot for a hobby keeper to keep in one place, and I would have thought a professional keeper would be more careful.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

It is just a few converted farmhouses, maybe three or four families total living up that road, and traffic is quite occasional, and the hives are a couple of meters from where the cars pass, still too close.

... I don't know, maybe they were indeed on edge because a couple of cars had recently passed (I didn't see them, but it could be the case), and I did approach them from the side at no more than a couple of meters distance, as that's where they were placed with respect to the path.

The path we were walking on is on the side of this abandoned building and joins the dirt road at a right angle just past the corner of the building and the hives were along the wall running alongside the dirt road.

It just strikes me as... I don't know... 36 hives seem a lot for a hobby keeper to keep in one place, and I would have thought a professional keeper would be more careful.

Don't know what the laws regarding rights of way and public access are in Italy. Maybe the people up the track want to discourage casual strollers?

 

[Zante]

Ok, someone at the local bar knows something about them. Apparently they were put there yesterday and will be gone tomorrow. I haven't understood what the issue was, I don't think the old man explaining it to me understood it either. From what was explained to me some issue at another apiary, and they were put there while a proper move elsewhere was arranged.

 

[Into the lions den]

Ok, someone at the local bar knows something about them. Apparently they were put there yesterday and will be gone tomorrow. I haven't understood what the issue was, I don't think the old man explaining it to me understood it either. From what was explained to me some issue at another apiary, and they were put there while a proper move elsewhere was arranged.

That's a pretty fair explanation and a situation in which almost any type of bee will be on edge. I always tell landowhers to give a newly arrived set of hives a wide berth for 24 hours. Its not necessary if it is a move onto an already begun flow as they settle in under an hour, but in this case sounds like it was a holding situation.

The beekeeper may have simply been told to set them down there by the landowner as it was so temporary and it is possible the beekeeper was very thankful and did not even know it to be a right of way.

Wtch out for any left behind stragglers for a couple of days after the hives are gone.....they really can be grumpy.

 

[Michael Palmer]

I always tell landowhers to give a newly arrived set of hives a wide berth for 24 hours.

Have you ever worked an apiary after it arrived back from pollination...or maybe heather... the night before? You only do that once.

 

[Into the lions den]

Have you ever worked an apiary after it arrived back from pollination...or maybe heather... the night before? You only do that once.

LOL Michael......yes indeed. Mid season shifts are the worst, by heather time their race is run for the season and most of the grumpy old flying bees have gone, but a move out from where they have been working to a holding situation........seen them even stinging the wiper blades on the truck.

When they are like that they are a hazard to the public. Fortunately strains vary and for the most part we have these real nippy types from years gone by eliminated. A friend from California was on a visit and although he did not see it he called those type of bees 'real shirt staplers'.