bees sting neighbour

[b.lambert]

In at my bees today assessing honey supers they were getting a bit irate as I was checking honey supers and manipulating frames I had smoked them after putting the hive back I had quite a few angry bees after me. I headed indoors and was unaware of what happened next, neighbor was attacked when she walked down the garden they thought they were swarming bees they went to hospital thankfully they did not have an allergic reaction but very shocked. They did not have my phone number and were afraid to come into front garden (bees in back). About five mins later got a phone call from someone who said the bees were swarming but there was no swarm I believe my timing and the neighbors have been in sync. I try to work bees when no neighbors about this was a guest neighbor. Something positive from it though met another beekeeper who wants bees. What happens next can they sue me?

[The Drone Ranger]

If you are a member of SBA you will have insurance but I doubt if you will be sued Bees are not domesticated animals they are classed as wild creatures.
You did not intentionally cause the situation with the neighbour and the bees.
If I were you though I would requeen that hive pronto and despite what other people might say I think you should look for a very gentle type of bee such as carniolan or italian
Cue the black bee brigade who will say AMM is the way to go but they wont give you a queen supplier because there isn't one as far as I know

[gavin]

I don't know how many folk I've heard of that started with bees in their garden and ended up moving them out. I did. We do our best to convince beginners that gardens are only suitable if very large and very secluded. It would be surprising if your neighbours are happy with the bees staying put after this.

Perhaps you have a beekeeper nearby that set up with - or requeened with - one of those exotic types that hybridised with your bees and made them tetchier than they should be?



Your local genetics may be dominated more by Amm than anything and if so it would be daft to bring in something that makes angry hybrids a couple of generations down the line!

[The Drone Ranger]

When someone has one hive and its in their garden they need a docile bees from a queen mated by docile drones
The best place to get one of those is to buy one from someone like **** or ****
I have lots of hives so can select and requeen from my own bees
Neighbours are important and they will be ok if the bees leave them alone.
The queen will last a few years and with any luck her daughters will be gentle as well

**Admin note**
Apologies for interfering with a post, but it is SBA policy not to accept advertising for imported honeybees in the magazine. Neither of these companies would have their adverts accepted for that reason.

[Adam]

You don't need to panic and replace the queen immediately. It will take 2 months for the ratty bees to die by which time inspections will have probably finished. However you should consider replacing the queen in the next few weeks if they're a nuisance. I guess a neighbour could apply for a bee ASBO or something.

Behaviour does definitely change over time - depending on the forage, weather and time of day.

I keep most of my bees in the (Front!) garden and they are fine. (When I can find the recent picture I'll post it). I did have one problem hive a couple of years ago with a big and angry colony which I moved after a re-queening attempt partially failed and we had to stay in the house all one Sunday. SWMBO was not impressed! As I currently have 15 hives, 2 nucs and some mini nucs here, I have the luxury of being able to remove a queen if I am concerned about behaviour. For example I squashed two last autumn and united those colonies with others. They were fine in March as all the 'wrong sort of bees' had died. I did the same at the end of March this year - 2 queens gone. However it was 2 months before the flighty bees were gone. They would have been tolerable in an out-apiary but I didn't want to risk anything - nor have any of their drones about.

I have an eclectic mix of bees in my apiary. Darkish local girls which are not too productive, a Carniolan type bee - gentle and swarmy. The offspring from a yellow NZ Italian and some nice orangy ones that came in a swarm I collected. This gives me a good genetic mix but of course can cause behavoural problems. The policy is to cull the worst and breed from the best so that over a few years I will have something with decent qualities. Nearby there are italians, carniolans and darker mongrels so controlled mating is not possible.

From the hives I have, I expect to reduce numbers before winter by uniting. Those will be large and strong.

An advantage of uniting in the Spring means that you suddenly have a big colony with - say - 10 or 12 frames of brood so it is good at getting early honey in.

[b.lambert]

well I checked out the neighbour, she was in bed, husband sort of had small smile glazed over his face when i said im sure i will bethe last person you want to see. (I had conciously said to myself not to mention any bee's in the sentence!) she was given antihistamines and told to watch for any symptoms, Tonight I gave them plenty smoke and placed porter bee-escapes on, and they were still irky, (19.30) it was a quick manipulation but one that was required. I think because they are a huge colony they are very protective towards honey. How do you requeen this late in season? positive things about today met new beekeeper, sold some bees! moved my first hive. and yes am a member of SBA

[gavin]

You can't have any kind of long-term solution by buying in exotic queens. It might buy you a little time, but in the long term you make matters worse - for you and for other beekeepers in your area. Unfortunately one of DL's recommended suppliers is widely recognised as being the source of poor quality swarmy stocks that would make your beekeeping more difficult rather than easier.

Whatever kind of bee we keep we will have to deal with unpleasant colonies at some stage. It is when colonies become powerful that you see their real nature. With new queens and when they are only on a few frames most stocks are easily managed. But fill a couple of boxes with bees and things can be quite different. With experience you can see the signs of poor temper early on. Tonight I saw that in one of my less strong colonies, but I can afford to give that one a second chance as no-one goes within 100 yards of the apiary except me.

Adam is right - requeening will not remove the tetchy workers (even if sometimes it does give an immediate improvement in temper).

Are you still in touch with your mentor? Local experience can be very valuable at a time like this.

[The Drone Ranger]

You can't have any kind of long-term solution by buying in exotic queens. It might buy you a little time, but in the long term you make matters worse - for you and for other beekeepers in your area. Unfortunately one of DL's recommended suppliers is widely recognised as being the source of poor quality swarmy stocks that would make your beekeeping more difficult rather than easier.

Whatever kind of bee we keep we will have to deal with unpleasant colonies at some stage. .

Sorry about the commercial mentions one of the companies used to regularly advertise in the SBA magazine before the BIBBA takeover

One short term measure that can often help is to put a couple of thymol sponges over the broodbox Why that works I don't know but it quite often does.

[Jon]

If you go for a solution such as buying in a Carnica or Ligustica you are immediately locked into requeening with imports on a regular basis and all that implies re. disease control, plus the risk of bringing in a new pathogen. Within a couple of generations you will more than likely have a vicious hybrid which has crossed with local drones. The fault is neither of the import nor the drone but rather the fact that a hybrid has been produced. DR says that there are no AMM suppliers, well there are no UK or Irish pure bred Carnica or Ligustica either. With AMM there are at least many breeding groups who work together and share genetic material.

Keeping bees in gardens is not for the novice and you have to have a plan for removing a colony immediately, ie the same day of the problem, should following behaviour develop such as described in the opening post. I would cull any queen which produced followers immediately as it has to be the worst trait in a bee colony. It transfers the sting risk from the beekeeper to the beekeeper's neighbours and the general public. The astronaut suited beekeepers can tolerate followers as they don't get strung through the bee suit but the neighbours don't cut the lawn in protective clothing and some bees can follow or defend for 100 yards from the hive.

There are several novice beekeepers in my bka keeping bees in small urban back gardens and it is an accident waiting to happen. My mate Tim mentioned the other day that he had been called out to over 20 swarms in chimneys this year alone. Oops mentioned the 'C' word again.

[Adam]

Quote "I would cull any queen which produced followers immediately as it has to be the worst trait in a bee colony".

This is not a recomendation now! A queenless colony may well be worse.

If your mentor has a frame of eggs he could donate from a gentle colony you could do an artificial swarm - queen on 1 frame of brood on old site with flying bees; remainder a few feet away that accepts the donor eggs for queen raising - and once the new queen is established you could unite with newspaper and squash the unwanted queen.

When I had the unpleasant colony a couple of years ago I desperately tried to think of where I could move the hive to; the option at the time was to make a temporary floor and wheelbarrow the two brood chambers (a WBC) a 100 yards away to a neighbours field. I now have an out apiary site. It's worth having another site available for when you need it.

One (master) beekeeper I know has a 'sin-bin' site in case of need.