HELP: Should Bees be banned from my allotment?

clairestokoe

Help...I seek the enlightenment as i have just taken over my first allotment and wanted to keep chickens and set-up a bee hive. I am such a worrier that i always do things 100% and am seeking expert bee advice from local bee keepers.

The problem is that in 2007 the council sold the surrounding area to houses and many have young families. For this reason we do not keep noisy livestock like geese as we do not wish to upset the people living next door to the gardens.

But the allotment officials have said that bees are banned due to the issue of swarming. This i could understand, if i wasn't getting expert advice to monitor the hive stock levels. Swarming only happens when the hive is too full and half the bees decide to move on.

I was also thinking that in the event of this rare though it is, i could have an empty hive there. Bees are so good for the garden and i think it would make a wonderful hobby.

What's your advice, should i contest?

paulofessex

Sorry l cant suggest anything regarding Bee's and your allotment, however after watching BBC's Countrywise programme l wonder if any local farmers would be happy for you to place a hive/s on their land as it benefits certain crops, may only cost you a couple of jars of honey.

Primrose

I would have thought that the whole point of the exercise was to keep bees on the allotment rather than elsewhere to ensure that crops such as strawberries, soft fruit bushes and runner beans can use the bees for pollination.

I'd definitely contest the decision and try to advise your fellow allotment holders of the desirability of having bees on the site, which would probably improve their crop pollination levels.

STOCKWIRE

Before you even consider keeping bees you should attend a beginners beekeeping course. Bees can swarm any time over the spring/summer months and until you are in capable of working with a hive, identifying Queen cells and removing them you should not keep a hive in a residential area. As suggested set your hive up on a farm or in a large secluded garden, get used to working with the bees and then when you are competent then maybe consider moving the bees. Bees tend not to be aggressive when they swarm, but they can be aggressive when you work on the hive and can cause problems to fellow allotment holders and residents living near by. Keeping an empty hive near by is not a solution. Remember bees travel up to 3 miles for pollen and nectar and having a hive on the allotment is not going to make a great deal of difference . Selective planting to attract butterflies and bumble bees would be more beneficial .

Sambucus_Nigra

Get in touch with the Beekeeping Assn and ask their advice on this.

You could make sure that people nearby know what to do if there is a swarm; and that people have your phone number in case of a swarm so that you can go and collect them as soon as they settle.

We have hives 3 plots away. I've not been stung in 3 years of being there. I have been there when they have swarmed twice; it is scarey when the outlier bees whizz past your face....and at that point I quietly go home and leave them to it. I grow loads of things that the bees love to attract them onto my plot....but when they do swarm it can get a little hairy.

I'd rather have a bee hive than a wasps nest.

Both can happen naturally, so at least if you have hives you control them a bit.

And yes, go on a course first....you need to know what to do if it goes pear shaped.

Cerisa

The other issue is that bees are rapidly becoming an endangered species.

I would definitely challenge this decree, which to me smacks of "But it's dreadful we only get our bins collected once a fortnight." "Why?" "Errrr....."

Personally if I had a young family I'd want my kids to know how bees work, and create one of my favourite foodstuffs. As well as teaching them that conservation is a good thing!

forgotmyname

The allotment committee have also looked into this but they must have x amount of people trained in the upkeep
of the hive etc.

Must be someone on hand to cover holiday periods.

happy_gardener

I have completed my prelimiary bee keeping course at my local bee keeping association. Like some of the other comments I too recommend you 'do a course' before taking on a hive.

Helen105

I have also just finished my prelimary bee keeping course at the local bee keeping association. They have offered us newbies loads of help including assigning a mentor to be there to go for advice with our first hive. They also have a swarm list of people who are ready to go out and deal with swarms at the drop of a hat. If your allotment committee knew that you had this sort of backup then they may reconsider. It is after all good to have bees around for pollination.

--Tony--

I can understand it.

My dad let a bee keeper keep some hives on his land in Devon, he was doing some strimming in the area (not that close to the hives), the bees did not like it and he ended up with a swarm of bees around him and stung several times.