We’re done with backyard urban beekeeping. Our four Langstroth hives are now living on a farm outside the city where they can swarm and go crazy and do whatever they want and never bother anyone. I miss looking out my window and seeing the bees out there doing their thing. Our next door neighbour — whose back door is about 6 metres (or 20 feet) from the old location of our hives — probably doesn’t miss them at all. That’s the #1 reason we had to move the hives. The bees got too close to our neighbours. Our particular neighbourhood was never an ideal location for keeping bees. More than a few of our neighbours seemed to eye us with suspicion. We always tried to avoid any kind of beekeeping when they were around gawking at us. I’m glad we don’t have to deal with that any more.
I look forward to keeping our bees in a more relaxed environment, but I’m not convinced the bees will do any better out on the farm. The farm is surrounded by a coniferous forest — spruce trees. Our urban location, on the other hand, is loaded with flowering deciduous trees that provide a bonanza of nectar and pollen throughout spring and summer. A greater diversity of flowers grow around the city, too.
When we have more experience and I’m confident we can prevent the bees from swarming into the face of one of our neighbours, we might build a small private enclosure behind our shed and set up a single hive, maybe two, just so we can hang with the bees and have our own personal supply of honey close by.
Until then, we’ll have to do our best as once-a-week beekeepers, if that, getting out to the farm in a borrowed car whenever we can.
 |
The above photo shows how we had to hide the hives behind our shed so they wouldn’t get noticed by local vandals while we secured a location outside the city. I’ll have more to say in a couple weeks when I’m not so busy at work.
I’m so sorry for you! I’m blessed with neighbors who like and appreciate my bees. I’m very lucky that my bees haven’t swarmed in a scary way. But then, I only have two hives, one in front and one in back.
Well thats it, move to PEI.
Sorry to hear this, what a shame that you have such intolerant neighbours.
That’s a bummer, Phillip.
I would miss my bees if I had to move them all away from my yard. I guess I’m lucky to have neighbors that are cool about my little ladies. Of course, the honey that I hand out to them seems to help that.
My hives swarmed a few times this spring, and went to my neighbor’s backyard a couple of times. They were very cool about it and pretty curious as I collected and hived the swarm. Then I gave them some honey from last year.
Well good luck at the new farm location. Glad you’re posting again and I hope you keep us informed,
Don John
bigskybeekeepers.hoop.la
We are surrounded here by 90,000 acres of Douglas fir, but the bees do fine. They find the stuff that lives by creeks and roads and in forest openings. Okay, we get lots of propolis too, but the honey is great.
We were lucky none of our neighbours were in their backyards when one of our hives swarmed back in May. The swarm — a big black cloud of bees — stayed close to the ground, hopped the fence into our immediate neighbour’s back yard, then the next neighbour and the next neighbour and then finally it settled on the ground behind a house that happened to be under construction and vacant. The swarm could have easily settled inside an opened gas BBQ on one of my neighbour’s back deck. That whole scene nearly had disaster written all over it.
That was our first moment of motivation to move the hives.
The next day we took some swarm prevention measures with the rest of the hives (and they were very close to swarming). Normally we don’t do any kind of beekeeping when our neighbours are outside, but we felt we had no choice. Subsequently, the bees got a little stirred up. Then our immediate next door neighbour walked out her back door — about 20 feet from the hives — and several bees got stuck in her hair. And she freaked out, understandably, and 20 minutes later a fire truck and the fire chief showed up in front of our house to investigate a complaint about killer bees.
That was our second moment of motivation to move the hives.
Although I can’t confess to being fond of some of our neighbours, especially a nosey old guy a few doors down who’s usually shirtless and drinks from bottomless coffee cup and blatantly stares and snoops around at everyone like he’s doing us a favour, I can’t blame my next door neighbour for not being thrilled to have 4 or 5 bees stuck in hair.
The lesson here is that setting up some hives 20 feet from a neighbour’s back door is too close for comfort. I don’t think this would have been an issue if we’d been able to set up our hives behind our shed, about 50 feet from the back of our house. We have a field back there…
…which is a perfect place for hives. The hives would be out the immediate vicinity of our neighbours’ backyards, and even if a hive swarmed, it would probably head for the trees back there instead of someone’s back deck.
Unfortunately, local vandals would likely knock down our hives in no time, so using the back field was never a realistic option for us.
Anyway, urban beekeeping lesson number one: If you don’t have bee-friendly neighbours, then you better keep the hives out of sight and far from their backyards.
I have to disagree a little, Phillip. I think you may be a little too sensitive to your neighbors’ assumed preferences. While we all want to be responsible urban beekeepers, if there are ordinances allowing the practice, I don’t really see why you had to move the hives.
And a swarm settling in a BBQ or on a porch isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Our bee club is all the time cutting feral swarms out of people’s houses, sheds, compost bins and shop vacs. People are mostly curious about the hives, and are happy to see someone rescuing those swarms, or colonies.
There are two or three feral hives around our historic neighborhood, and I caught two swarms from them this year. There were three other swarms, but they were too high in my neighbor’s tree for me to reach. Each one was an opportunity for me to educate the folks around me. Those that disapprove, well, they just go on and disapprove.
Our bee club president says if you have nervous neighbors, give them some honey and talk to them about bees. I found it worked for me.
But, I understand if you felt so much under pressure that you just wanted to move them. We all have to do what we feel is right. I’ll miss your frequent posts. And I would miss my backyard hives. My condolences.
I’m sorry you had to move the hives.
Yikes! Bees got caught in a neighbor’s hair???
We’ve had our small share of problems, but we eventually worked out as we talked to the municipality and then the neighbors. Luckily, all the neighbors have very tall fences, so the bees have to fly straight up.
Again, sorry you had to move the hives. I would miss my bees if I had to move them, but I understand about the neighborly pressure too.
We didn’t have to move the hives, but some of the people who live in the house right next door to us have a reputation for being slightly psycho. Angry and mean seems to be their default position. They called the fire department on us already. They’re likely to come after us with pitch forks if any of our bees start buzzing around their heads again. I’ve given honey to my neighbours, even them, and most of my neighbours are nice people who are totally cool with honey bees. Just not all of them. If the not-so-bee-friendly neighbours weren’t right next door to us (their house is literally 20 feet from ours), I could probably find a better way to manage the situation. But for the time being, the best solution is to move the bees entirely from our property.
Too bad there’s always one of those psychos in the neighborhood. I lucked out this time as the psycho is two houses away from us.
Yes, sounds like the best solution for you guys.
I hope your bees settle into their new rural homestead and flourish. I think it is great that you haven’t given up, beekeeping isn’t easy but then nothing worth anything ever is!
Have just started to follow you guys, am a back yard beekeeper in a tiny backyard in Sussex, fortunately with very cool neighbours. Also with other hives in other locations, keeps me busy plus it is alot more planning to get out in the field, I do worry more about the ones I have to travel to see, and I would miss mine as it is a constant companion to my life at home.
Wishing you best
I just had a terrible experience with a neighbor.
I have had my hive since April. The hive was in place for six weeks before anyone saw the boxes. My neighbor on my left has always been a pain. He complains about things in other people when they are the same things that he does himself. Plus he just won’t shut up. Talks fast and way too much.
After hurricane Isaac some bees chased him in his yard and he came screaming over to my house. He accused me of all kinds of things – not worth the time to explain what, but it was really a sideline to the bees. Anyway most of what he said I did were things HE did, too. Except the bees. I think he is OCD, high functioning but a bit stuck, he can’t let things go. I had to move my hive that night – I was afraid he would spray it with pesticides and blame me for not moving it fast enough.
So, bees may not be the target of a neighbor’s anger. It might be that they are just pissed off at you and the bees get caught in the cross fire.
The best thing about this experience is this: I don’t care. He got me upset for about 45 minutes. I keep thinking two things: 1) I can turn him off by shutting the door or walking away. He has to sit in his own head with his obsessions. 2) Dalai Lama said something about anger. It went like this… Anger comes from wanting things to be different from what they are.
I will miss watching my bees.
I miss watching my bees too. I’m giving thought to selling off my hives because I can’t watch the bees anymore. I see them once a week for a couple hours, and it’s usually a busy couple of hours, no time to sit back and observe the bees closely. Now that they’re no longer in my backyard or on my property, I realize that being around them every day is the only thing I care about. Everything else about beekeeping is secondary.
I wish my next door neighbour would move away.
I am a neighbor who lives within 30 feet of a future Bee hive and not having any experience in this department I am extremely nervous and have questions. Reading these websites just makes me more unsure and all of your comments about how awful we “non bee” people are seem biased. Since my neighbor has not spoken directly to any of us we have no idea what her plans are as far as fencing, water, warning us when she is going to maintain whatever it is you maintain with a hive etc. I have researched and see that how you handle these issues will make a huge difference in how MY life is affected by her right to have bees.
So help me out and give me some good reasons not to be freaked out…
I have flowering trees in my yard… will this attract the bees, and why should I be ok with all these additional bees
I have a 5 year old (as does the neighbor on the other side) who is afraid of bees… pretty much sucks for them so my neighbor can have a hobby)
Our backyard, where my 5 year old plays in his little pool and sprinkler, are less than 30 feet apart..will I have to worry that the Bees will be attracted by this?
My dog and the neighbors (the future bee hive people) dog like to run and play in their yard…should I keep my dog from playing lest they accidentally get too close and upset the bees?
he bee hive is going to be set up within 10-15 feet from a back alley road, often there are trucks that go through and sometimes the village brings equipment through there, as well as the bunches of trucks that roam the alleys for scrap and garbage that homeowners set back there for the taking…Is this going to upset the hive if its night time or if the hive is being tended to?
A swarm sounds pretty intimidating to me, why is it rude or psycho of me to NOT be ok with a swarm trying to find a home anywhere near me or my kids or animals?
I plan to have a sit down with my neighbor, but would really like to have some back ground information as I want to be fair, as I said, I have zero experience with bee hives and my knee jerk reaction is to feel irritated about it, especially since I found out about her purchase of the hive on facebook.
I’m just some guy with a blog, not a master beekeeper. I’m no longer obsessed by bees or beekeeping (at least not while I’m restricted by what I can do living in my urban neighbourhood), so whatever you get from me is a moderately informed opinion based on my limited experience. For a more informed response, you might want to repeat your question over at Honey Bee Suite.
http://honeybeesuite.com
Every person who has told me that they hate bees, is afraid of bees or is allergic to bees, has never been stung or bothered by honey bees. No offense, but that’s why I may have a biased attitude towards “non-bee” people who tend to have irrational, uninformed reactions to anything that remotely resembles a bee. They need to get their facts straight.
Nevertheless, I understand your concern about a neighbour setting up a bee hive close to your children. Chances are, if your neighbour goes through with it, you’ll never know the bees are there. You may occasionally see bees flying around some flowers in your yard, but they’re harmless. Even if you see more bees in your flowering tree, you’d have to whack at them violently with a stick before they’d ever act defensively. In my experience with bees in trees and on flowers, you can virtually stick your face right in the flower with them and they’ll ignore you.
The bees will only bother you if you bother them by getting too close to the hive. If you’re not in the same yard as the hive, then you’re probably out of any potential line of fire. Honey bees are docile and friendly 99% of the time. The bees need to perceive you as a serious threat to their colony before they’ll shift into any kind of defensive behaviour. Playing Ring-Around-The-Rosey with the hive, banging a ball up against it, kicking it, spraying it with a hose — that kind of thing. But even then, the last thing a honey bee wants to do is sting. Most of the time, if you stay away from the hive, at least 10 or 15 feet away, the bees will stay away from you.
Don’t worry about the dog. Dogs or cats that get too close to a bee hive will get stung once and instantly learn to live peacefully with the bees by leaving them alone. Most dogs and cats, I think, are smart enough to stay away in first place.
A swarm may sound scary, but it’s not. In my experience, the bees are in their most friendly mood after swarming. They have no reason to act defensively during a swarm because they have no hive to protect. A swarm may look and sound scary, but it’s harmless. If you happen to see a swarm and you want to play it safe, just go inside for about 30 minutes. The bees will have found a place to hang out by then and you can call the beekeeper to come collect the bees if they’re in your property. Swarms might be inconvenient, but they won’t hurt anyone.
If I had children, my only concerns with having a bee hive close by would be:
1) The bees can get a little more defensive in the fall when they’re no longer bringing in nectar. If the bees normally defend an area of 3 or 4 feet around the hive throughout the spring and summer, that area can expand to about 20 feet in the fall. Usually only one bee would buzz me in the head when I got within that 20 foot perimeter in the fall, but once it got a bead on me, it wouldn’t leave me alone. I never got stung, but for about a week in the fall, I couldn’t go out in my small backyard without being pestered. If your neighbour’s hive is within 20 feet of where your children play, they could be pestered by the bees in the fall. That’s less likely if your neighbour’s yard is fenced in with a solid fence.
2) Bees will act more defensively towards bad beekeepers who don’t act calmly. When I was learning how to inspect my hives, I never did it while my neighbours were outside just in case I disturbed the bees too much.
3) Bees are attracted to pools and puddles of water. Maybe it’s the chlorine in the water that they like. I don’t know. The bees probably wouldn’t hang around if kids were splashing water everywhere, because they don’t like to get wet, but you might find bees drinking at the pool’s edge when the kids aren’t around. I’ve seen bees, never in large numbers, drinking from a leaky hose on the ground, but I’ve never had to deal with them near a pool, so I can’t speak to that.
I would talk to your neighbour about your concerns. Ask them if they have a plan for dealing with potential swarms. Hopefully your neighbour knows what they’re doing and would be willing to move the hive if the bees somehow bothered anyone.
If I could chime in and add my two cents Cathy, I would say you are lucky esp if you have flowering anything. Gardens will produce more, apple trees will be abundant. The fear you have is of the unknown and good of you to ask questions. Bees come out of the hives and fly up, you will probably never know there was a bee hives near you plus if you ask nice enough your neighbor might teach you and your child about them. They really are gentle and no aggressive.You would really need to be whacking at a hive to tick it off. I would be way more nervous of having a hornet nest anywhere in the neighbourhood than honey bees,besides most neighbour’s share a dish of honey with you. If and IF they ever visit the pool, tell the neighbour’s to.scent their water to get them back and cover yours for a day or two when not in use. Good luck and enjoy