VERY angry bees

[lou92]

Good morning,
I hope this is ok to post here but myself and my family are at our wits end! I am hoping some lovely people here can help with any advice!
My parents are disabled and my mother loves gardening that's really her only hobby, but for the 2 years she has been constantly attacked by bees that her next door neighbour keeps in hives. I'm not talking one of two stings, these bees go for her. She has 5/6 stings on her neck and scalp which made her fall over, the next time it was 2 on the eye lid and she couldn't see for a week, she has also started having a hive reaction and becoming breathless when they sting her. The bees also attacked my dog, my husband and myself when we were literally just standing in the garden. The next door neighbour is a member of the bee keeping association apparently, and talking to neighbours he has been known for very angry bees. We have spoken to him many times and he has "moved the hives" and this last time he said he decided to kill the entire hive as they were all so aggressive. I love bees, I don't want to see them come to any harm but my mother is scared to go outside in her own garden and is in frequent tears about it and it is breaking my heart. Is there anything, anything we can do? Thank you for any advice / words of wisdom.
Regards, a very very concerned sad daughter

[AdamD]

Quite simply your neighbour needs to either destroy or move the bees as a matter of urgency. By moving the bees, this needs to be a long distance away so you are not caused any bother any more. Moving them a few yards away is clearly not going to be enough. Once moved the beekeeper can then re-queen them - maybe with help from his association if he is unable to do it himself. Once -re-queened with a 'gentle' queen, the colony will right itself although this could take a couple of months for the aggressive bees to die off and be replaced by others.

Bees don't need to be aggressive although occasionally a colony will become so.

My home apiary is the front lawn of my house. The postman etc walks past each day without problems and when my children were smaller they would ride their bikes on the drive without fear of being stung. That's what I would expect from bees and I would deal with any colonies that behaved differently from that.

It seems like your neighbour is willing to take action to deal with the problem and if he doesn't have access to a safe 'out apiary' site, he may well have to destroy them, sadly.

[Chrisbarlow]

If your neighbour won't help contact environment health at the council

[Patrick]

Hi Lou92

I second Adam and Chris's advice. Bees in gardens work perfectly fine if they are calm and managed responsibly.

Obviously we are only getting one side of the story here, but taken as given, it is not acceptable your parents are unable to use their garden safely. If repeated requests to take action with the neighbour direct have been ignored or inadequately responded to then Environmental Health are well used to handling such disputes. The suggestion to kill the bees seems not to have been acted on but if he is unwilling or unable to take alternative action such as rehoming elsewhere, then that indeed may need to be the outcome.

[Jim Norfolk]

I agree with all that has been said. It is not acceptable. I have my bees in our garden and we can sit within a few feet of the hives with no problem. It is a duty of all beekeepers to deal with any aggressive traits by requeening or stop keeping bees anywhere there may be people who might be stung.

[NigelP]

As all the above. I had a hive turn rogue at Easter and started attacking me in my own garden....they are now farmed out to an out apiary...much calmer today but still a bit touchy feely.
If he won't move his hives he really is a bad beekeeper. I would complain to the local society about his behaviour if he becomes unreasonable.

[Cable_Fairy]

lou92 All of the above. Perhaps you could look up your local Bee Inspector and ask for an inspection.

[AdamD]

I have found my copy of Beekeeping and the Law which is old - printed in 1993 so may well be out of date. However it refers to the 1990 Environmental Protection Act and a "statutory nuisance" in section 79 ".. any animal kept in such a place or manner as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance" Section 80 states that "Where a local authority is satisfied that a statutory nuisance exists or is likely to to occur or recur ... the authority can serve an abatement notice".
As Patrick rightly says, we see only one side of the matter in this thread, however if bees are causing a nuisance, we as beekeepers need to take action to stop it.

[DianeBees]

If your neighbour is aware of the issue and won't move them away and deal with them elsewhere then I think environmental health should be able to assist.
Always talk to your neighbour first.
If their bee group is approachable then maybe they could assist in the bees being moved.

I spoke to one EHO last week who said he gets occasional moans about bee poo and the odd sting, but doesn't consider minor issues a nuisance. He wasn't at allotment about bees - but neighbour had complained with concerns about rats and smoke.

Regular stings would be considered a nuisance I believe and the env health are in the best position to deal with this.

[thewoodgatherer]

I have three hives in the garden which we sit no nearer than about 15m from but just today we are being hassled by guard bees that have made us have to go indoors and they are even following. I have tried to identify which hive these are coming from but I'm not sure and all are pretty reasonable to inspect. Could this be temporary defensiveness as all three are currently queen less due to swarm control and moving queens into nuc's?