THE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN EDITED AND UPDATED SINCE ORIGINALLY POSTED.
Summary: 1) If Walt Whitman was a beekeeper today, I’d want him as my mentor. 2) “Out of sight, out of mind” may be the best approach to backyard urban beekeeping.
Second Thoughts About Everything
I’ve changed my tune about urban beekeeping since one of my colonies swarmed and several bees got stuck in my next door neighbour’s hair and burrowed in until they got down to her scalp — and completely freaked her out. I had to move all my hives out to the country to maintain the peace. Now I only see the bees for a couple hours every couple weeks and it’s just not the same as being around them every day. I’ve lost my connection to them, the peace that comes from hanging with the bees and watching them do their thing. It’s a strange confession, but in the absence of that connection, I’ve lost interest in beekeeping.
Which means most of my beekeeping plans are on hold until I can find a way to re-establish that connection. I need enough land and trees so that no matter what the bees do, they’ll never be able to disturb any of those pesky humans. Or I have to figure out a way to set up a couple hives on my property in the city so they’re out of sight and out of the way of my neighbours. Then I need a plan for dealing with swarms, because no matter what swarm-prevention measures are taken, the bees will swarm some day. I’ve read about urban beekeepers who love swarms, but those beekeepers clearly do not live in my neighbourhood. My first experience with a swarm in my backyard — and my neighbour’s reaction to it — was a nightmare, a nightmare that nearly extinguished all the pleasure I get from beekeeping. I came this close to packing it in.
Walt Whitman with a butterfly on his finger.
The events of this past year also made me realize I’m happier keeping things small and simple. Small, as in I doubt I’ll ever have more than ten hives (what a relief that thought is). Simple, as in I don’t want to make beekeeping into a business (I had considered it). I have a lot of respect for business-minded beekeepers because they’re usually pretty damn good beekeepers. I have a lot to learn from them. But I discovered that I don’t get excited thinking about how I can manipulate every aspect of the honey bees’ behaviour to produce the most honey or the best laying queens or the cleanest beeswax for making hand creams. Beekeeping for the purpose of maximizing everything just doesn’t work for me. Some sales to offset the costs are fine, but I’m too aesthetically-minded to think of bees as livestock, even if that’s what they are.
A Careful Approach to Backyard Urban Beekeeping
Me with a honey bee on my finger.
I’m setting up a couple hives in a friend’s large fenced-in backyard nearby. The hives will be at the very edge of his property at least 20 metres (or 70 feet) from any neighbour’s back door, so if anything ever disturbs the bees, the neighbours aren’t likely the encounter any bees in a bad mood. The hives will be surrounded by large maple trees on one side, so when the bees exit the hive, they hit the trees and go straight up, high into the sky where none of the immediate neighbours will notice them. (A high fence would work too.) The maple trees along with some coniferous trees in the area will also give any swarms a convenient place to hang out while they’re looking for a new home. I’d have to shake the swarm off a branch into a new hive box (and hopefully not catch the attention of too many suspicious neighbours), but it’s better than trying to retrieve a swarm from a neighbour’s empty barbecue or some kid’s swing set. For this reason, nearby trees are essential. One of the trees in my friend’s yard is big enough to hold a swarm trap too. A swarm trap is basically a nuc box with drawn frames that, theoretically, will attract swarming bees. A swarm trap makes it easier to re-hive the bees. So there’s that plan.
Next I will camouflage the hives. They won’t be painted yellow or white or anything bright. Certain backyard tools (think shovels and rakes, etc.) will also be placed leaning up against the hives and on top of them, so that, from a distance, no one will likely notice the hives. They should blend in with everything else in the yard. It doesn’t hurt that the yard isn’t the most well kept. There’s scrap wood and broken pieces of junked up gardening supplies all over place. Perfect. Then as a precaution, my friend will have an EpiPen at his house on the remote chance that someone has an anaphylactic reaction to a bee sting. (With or without an EpiPen, I wouldn’t set up a beehive anywhere near small children.)
So let’s recap: 1) Hives placed at least 20 metres (70 feet) from any neighbour’s back door to reduce the likelihood of the bees getting in their face. 2) Trees or fence close to the hives to make the bees go up when they exit the hives. 3) Trees to give bees a place to hang out when they swarm. 4) Tree big enough to hold swarm trap. 5) A plan that says, “I know exactly what to do when a colony swarms.” 6) Hives hidden and disguised. 8) EpiPen on site for emergencies. 9) No beehives near small children.
A swarm hanging in a tree (June 2012).
A change of plans for me next year, though, is not to overfeed the bees. My bees most likely swarmed because I gave them a steady supply of sugar and pollen for most of the winter when they didn’t need it. By the time May rolled around, the hives were so stuffed with bees, they were ready blow. I’d rather hold back on feeding and risk the colony becoming weak than deal with a swarm in the city. I know there are other factors involved in swarming, but not overfeeding the bees is one of the easier preventive measures I can take.
The other change for next year — and this has nothing to do with urban beekeeping — is that I’ll probably move the rest of the hives to the property of a friend who can keep tabs on the bees for me. The way it is now, the bees are located on a farm where they’re not well monitored because nobody on the farm knows anything about bees, and they’re located in a relatively isolated area of the farm. All kinds of things could happen to the bees and I’d never know, or I’d likely find out too late. I’m pretty sure at least one of the colonies swarmed this past summer and was never caught because no one was around to tell me they’d swarmed. Another hive was vandalized and heavy rain poured inside the hive for a few days before I found out about it. The farm is a great place for the bees, but I have a friend who just bought a house in the country with loads of room for beehives. He’s interested in learning about bees, so he’ll be the perfect guy to keep an eye on them for me. Hopefully that arrangement (or a similar arrangement with some relatives of mine), along with the pair of hives I can see everyday in the city, will make for a more enjoyable year of beekeeping. I think it’ll be fun to watch the bees do whatever they want to do out in the country and it’ll feel good to have a pair of hives close to home to satisfy my desire to be with the bees.
P.S. (Nov. 05/12): I mentioned that nearby trees are essential so that swarming bees in the city have a place to hang while they’re looking for a new home. By nearby, I don’t mean just 10 metres (or 30 feet) away. I mean anywhere between 20 and 30 metres (70 and 100 feet), because that’s the average distance a swarm will fly before it settles in a tree in a clump the size of a water melon. Look around your neighbourhood and let that one roll around your brain for a few minutes while you’re thinking about setting up a beehive in your backyard. I don’t want to seem discouraging. All I’m saying is let’s keep it real. No matter what you do, those bees are going to swarm someday and land about 30 metres from the hive. So look around. Where are they going to land?
Lots to consider, for sure.
As someone planning to get into beekeeping in the spring, I’ve found your site an interesting and enjoyable resource. Glad to see the occasional updates becoming more frequent. While the Bee Act in Ontario lays out rules, my City’s by-laws are more of an obstacle with respect to my keeping hives at home. I’m intrigued by the garden tool ensemble you’re suggesting, though. I too have a friend willing to help out and provide space on her acreage out in the county; maybe 30 minutes, door to door. I’m hoping it doesn’t take away from our expectations. Being able to step out into the yard to observe “on a whim” certainly would be ideal and perhaps, over time we can work toward adjusting local regulations.
While it might complicate things more that you’d like, have you considered approaching the University or City itself to see if a pilot program could be set up or site put aside for a “community apiary”. I’m sure that too would come with its own kit of baggage ….. I’m rooting for you.
Steve, I contacted UofT Mississauga to see if I could place few bee hives in the areas no one access, but the request declined.
“I’m intrigued by the garden tool ensemble you’re suggesting, though.”
I fluked into that, but it’s a good idea: make the hive look like a pile of junk. Disguise it as a compost bin — whatever works. The bees don’t care what the outside of the hive looks like. I’ve got garden tools and old pieces of scrap lumber leaning up against the hive, and unless you knew what to look for you, you wouldn’t guess it’s a beehive.
I spoke to someone at the university about setting up a hive or two before, but they can’t say yes to it at the moment because they’re concerned about liability.
I think my pair of camouflaged hives in the city should work out alright next year, and I’m looking forward to trying out some new things with my friend out in the country. I’d like to build a Warré hive with him and maybe a top-bar. Not concerning myself with honey production or any of the business side beekeeping really opens up the possibilities to experiment and learn from watching the bees.
I’ve moved one of my hives back to the city according to my plan. Camouflage is a great idea. The hive looks like a pile of junk, not a beehive.
I’d love to get a bee suit that’s not all white. Another colour or design that’s more inconspicuous would go a long way for urban beekeepers like me who are better off not being noticed.
I just left this message over at Honey Bee Suite. It repeats some info I wrote in the postscript for this post, but it’s worth going over again.
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I agree with Bill on this: “I recommend to all new beekeepers to only say something to their neighbors after they figure out if the neighbors are ‘killer bee’ types or if they know the difference between passive and hostile.”
Absolutely. If you suspect your neighbours aren’t exactly rational, then it may be wiser not to tell them anything and do your best to hide your hives. I had to move my bees from my urban backyard because my neighbours called the fire department complaining about killer bees. Had I taken steps from the beginning to hide my hives from said neighbours (I knew they weren’t nice people), and had I not told them about the bees, I think my bees would still be on my property in the city today. If I could do it over again, I’d probably move my hives further from their backdoor, too, at last 50 or so feet away, but I definitely would have kept the bees of sight and out of mind from the beginning.
I’ve recently taken steps to bring a couple hives back to the city because I just can’t take it anymore not seeing the bees everyday. I don’t think I’d keep bees if I couldn’t see them everyday. At any rate, I put a lot of thought into it because I want avoid the stress of dealing with crazy neighbours again, and for me, it breaks down like this (number 4 is the big one):
1) Don’t tell the neighbours unless you know they’re kind and open minded people.
2) Hide and camouflage the hives, so they’re out sight, out of mind.
3) Keep the hives at least 50 feet from the neighbour’s back door, so if the bees ever get riled up for some reason, they’re less likely to get in your neighbour’s face.
4) Look around within a 100-foot radius of the hives and realize that some day the bees are going to swarm and land somewhere along that perimeter. Where are they going to land? What are you doing to do when they land on your neighbour’s swing set a couple houses down the block?
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Luckily the neighbours don’t have kids or a swing set 100 feet from our hives’ new location, only tall trees.
Here’s a video I found that demonstrates how docile honey bees are when they’re swarming. I doubt this would convince my nosey neighbours, but I’m almost convinced.
I tried to inspect my lonely city hive today without being seen by anyone in the neighbourhood. It wasn’t easy. I was able to suit up out sight and get the smoker lit. Then the guy next door let his pitbull out, so it was viciously barking at me through a fence about 30 feet away the whole time. That didn’t help with my undercover operation. Then a suspicious neighbour on the other side came out but luckily didn’t walk far enough to see me, though I could see him through some dead bushes.
A tense beekeeper is not a good beekeeper, so I kept it short and sweet.
I pulled the top off the hive. No dry sugar or pollen patties left. Not a large number of bees either. But that’s okay because I don’t want my bees in the city to grow out of control. If I had the time, I would have done a full inspection and reversed the brood boxes. Instead I just added one full deep to the top of the hive. The deep is full of drawn comb (which is full of dead bees and pollen) taken from my colony that starved over the winter. That will reduce the chances of swarming by giving the colony immediate room to expand.
I’ll add a jar feeder tomorrow when no one’s around just in case the bees are running low on food, which they easily could be.
I look forward to when leaves are on the trees and the hive is more well hidden. I wish there were more bee-friendly people in the immediate vicinity of my hive. This is cloak and dagger beekeeping is a bit unnerving.