bees sting neighbour

[Jon]

A lot of it's down to temperament and the beekeeper knowing when to leave them alone.

I have read on various forums that it is silly to keep bees in domestic gardens.

It's not silly but you do need to know what you are doing.
I have 3 colonies at the bottom of my own garden, but I do have reservations about it.
I really only ever intend to keep nucs in the garden but one of them has collected about 100lbs of honey so the forage is obviously very good.

Beginners run into problems very quickly as they often don't handle bees very well, wear heavy gloves which antagonises the bees, and crucially, are not on top of swarm control.
That nice pure bred queen disappears some time late April or early May with half the colony and you are then into russian roulette re. the temperament of the colony headed by your new queen. In a worst case scenario you entertain the neighbours with a series of cast swarms landing in the nearest gardens 1-2 weeks after losing the prime swarm. One of our beginners had at least 8 swarms from the two colonies in his garden. If they start to hand out OBEs for filling Belfast's chimneys with bees, he will be first in line. One of them went into his friend's chimney so seems to be some karma involved.

I open my garden colonies far less than my other colonies and one of them swarmed on July 1st. The swarm went back home an hour after settling in my garden and the clipped queen managed to climb back up the leg of the stand as well as I found her inside. Fortunately my next door neighbour was on holidays as this swarm would have had about 25,000 bees in it.

Most non beekeepers are terrified of bees.

As for AMM bees, I have listened and read about them, can't buy any queens so as far as I am concerned it is all blue sky and words.

Have you checked if there are any bee improvement groups in your area? They are all over the uk and many of them, but not all of them, favour the native bee.
The idea that queens are always available on demand encourages some of the sharks who are only interested in making a fast buck out of beekeepers. OK, I know it is about supply and demand but many of the better beekeepers rarely buy in queens or buy in just one or two to do their grafting from.
It is not hard to rear your own queens but it takes a certain mindset.

Trog, when was the last time you bought a queen? I bet it is not something you do every year if at all. In my own case I have never bought one but am happy to swap. I would consider buying in an unrelated queen from time to time if I though it would help the genetics.

[Trog]

Hi Jon. I've never bought a queen. My current bees are descendents of two colonies bought from Seil yonks ago, doubtless mixed with a neighbour's which came from Ft William (pre-varroa days), and ferals, some of which came from 2 colonies described as 'vicious' which were seldom inspected by their keeper so swarmed all the time, plus ferals picked up as a swarm elsewhere on the island, then an AMM swarm from neighbour. In other words, a bit of a mixture but all acclimatised and having proved themselves able to survive all an island winter can throw at them. Unusually, I also picked up two swarms this summer and so far they seem even-tempered while building up extremely rapidly.

[Jon]

Hi Jon. I've never bought a queen. My current bees are descendents of two colonies bought from Seil yonks ago, doubtless mixed with a neighbour's which came from Ft William (pre-varroa days), and ferals, some of which came from 2 colonies described as 'vicious' which were seldom inspected by their keeper so swarmed all the time, plus ferals picked up as a swarm elsewhere on the island, then an AMM swarm from neighbour. In other words, a bit of a mixture but all acclimatised and having proved themselves able to survive all an island winter can throw at them. Unusually, I also picked up two swarms this summer and so far they seem even-tempered while building up extremely rapidly.

These young whipper-snappers want their queens out of vending machine like cans of coca-cola.
My father has been keeping bees for over 50 years, maybe 60 and I don't think he has bought a queen yet either.
He might be about to crack and dish out £48 + vat now that he has turned 80. Never to late to start but I am not holding my breath!

I got my first couple of colonies from him and also a swarm or two which I collected.

Didn't Ivor Cutler one of Gavin's main influences live on Seil?

[gavin]

I hope that they don't import otherwise you'll be in trouble.

Didn't Ivor Cutler live in London?

[The Drone Ranger]

These young whipper-snappers want their queens out of vending machine like cans of coca-cola.
My father has been keeping bees for over 50 years, maybe 60 and I don't think he has bought a queen yet either.
He might be about to crack and dish out £48 + vat now that he has turned 80. Never to late to start but I am not holding my breath!

I got my first couple of colonies from him and also a swarm or two which I collected.

Didn't Ivor Cutler one of Gavin's main influences live on Seil?

Maybe he should get one from The Scottish Agricultural College they were importing queens from Denmark a few years ago.
Their bees are probably classed as local stock now I suppose
Pot Kettle Black make your own sentence


Ivor's song about beekeeping

Admin note: If you use the filmstrip icon to insert the link to an online video you get to see it in the post.

Thanks for the edit Gavin here's a pic. of the punch he's singing about

[Jon]

Maybe he should get one from The Scottish Agricultural College they were importing queens from Denmark a few years ago.

I assume those were Buckfast as Buckfast is big in Denmark.

That happened in NI as well. There was a time, the 1970s I think, when the Dept. of Agriculture here was promoting the Buckfast bees as some kind of a superior bee.
There are still a few hold outs re. Buckfast, especially among some of the more elderly beekeepers.

Gav. I definitely have it in my head that Ivor Cutler spent time on Seil before moving to London. Did he live there for a while?

[The Drone Ranger]

I assume those were Buckfast as Buckfast is big in Denmark.

Don't know for sure but I think they were black bees
This was only about 5 yrs ago

I was on a bee diseases course at Achincruive

That's why I ask the question when is an import no longer an import and suddenly becomes local stock ??

(Answer when its black of course)

[Jon]

Must have been Carnica rather than Buckfast , then.
And local is the wrong word. Most people talk about native bees, ie the bees native to these islands before introductions were made.

AMM from France was imported to Craibstone in the 1930s. There are videos on Youtube.

Ivor Cutler was also imported but society is the better for that.

[The Drone Ranger]

Must have been Carnica rather than Buckfast , then.
And local is the wrong word. Most people talk about native bees, ie the bees native to these islands before introductions were made.

AMM from France was imported to Craibstone in the 1930s. There are videos on Youtube.

Ivor Cutler was also imported but society is the better for that.

The advice given on buying bees here is to "buy locally bred stock which is adapted to the local conditions"
All I'm pointing out that the distinction between imported and local is an artificial one.
At some point the bees are suddenly transformed from imported to local whether that be 1 year 5 years 30 years
Nearly all the commercial bee operations in the UK import their queens.
The idea that a single beekeeper who buys an imported or commercially produced queen is having any effect on the genetic make up of the UK bee population is like saying switch off your phone charger and global warming goes away.
While organisations like the SBA say don't buy bees from bee breeders there will never be any large scale bee breeding in the UK
This is made worse by advice to new beekeepers like they should only buy nucs headed by this years queen
Any UK breeding operation would have to sell overwintered queens.
The way forward is to breed bees in the UK on a large scale (commercial basis) which using AI isolated mating and selected stock will make quality queens available to small scale bee keepers. (bit like Brother Adam did)
The alternative piecemeal approach has led nowhere as bees in the UK have probably not improved a jot in the last 100 years
If the present thinking continues then bees will always be in such short supply that beekeepers will be forced into buying from companies who import.
Demand is so high that bee hives are being stolen regularly

I know in small pockets people like yourself and rosie jimbo etc are creating small enclaves but a general improvement will only be possible if quality UK queens are readily available when required

The growth in beekeeping in the UK is tremendous that's not mirrored in membership of the SBA which is very small and probably not numerically representative of even a majority of beekeepers in Scotland.

7 or 8 years ago it had about 1100 members and I think now around 1300 to 1400

So the overall effect of SBA policies on beekeeping in Scotland is probably far less than the impression its members might be given.

Well that's got that problem sorted --next

[gavin]

So ... we all need to get imported bees because local ones are pretty much the same and they'll be local soon enough.

Commercial beekeeping and hobby beekeeping would soon be in perfect harmony. Nobody importing is likely to make any difference to the genetics of the UK overall. Embracing imports would allow the SBA to really boost its membership in line with the huge increase in import-loving Scottish beekeepers ... and then we wouldn't need AI or piecemeal approaches and little local breeding groups and their small enclaves?! I think that I have it now then DL, thanks for clarifying!



I'm still wondering though why we are now encouraging B to buy an ill-suited import which will inevitably rebound on her and give her even more fierce colonies in the seasons to come?