My neighbour has a beehive about 1.5m from our fence. They clearly don't know anything about maintaining it, as we currently have swarms of bees in our front & back garden. It's so bad that we can't go out or leave a door or window open for more than a couple of seconds. My wife is allergic to their sting so this is no joke. Are they allowed a hive in a domestic town garden? If so it it allowed that close to the fence/our house? If there someone we can contact? Council etc? Many thanks
A lot depends on the way the hive is positioned. Your neighbour needs to turn the hive so the back of the hive faces your property. That way the flight path will be away from your property, and even if the bees do visit your flowers they will do so by coming and going just as any bees would, rather than in streams, or swarms as you put it.
Interestingly enough, a hive in a suburban garden will double or triple the productivity of surrounding gardens, so everyone benefits. I hope your neighbour intends handing a jar of honey or two over the fence too, it will produce far too much for one family to use.
Bees have this year been nominated as the most valuable creature on the planet, with a little rearranging, their presence nextdoor should not inconvenience you in the slightest.
marte,
Oct 13, 12:06pm
My neighbour had a hive, I had more than the usual amount of honey bees, but not enough to cause any problems, there was a bit of 'Bee pee' yellow dust specks on my car but as soon as I found out what it was, it wasn't a problem. They seemed to mostly come over for pollen off the weeds growing about and water that was sitting in things. But, they never caused any problems and he gave me a jar of honey, that was the best honey I have ever tasted in my whole life.
holly-rocks,
Oct 13, 7:45pm
Probably too late now, but if you do have a swarm of bees (they swarm in the spring) be a cheeky bugger and sell it back to him. 😹 They are worth up to $600 here for a nuc hive.
Have you looked at getting an Epipen for your wife?
lyl_guy,
Oct 13, 8:26pm
Would be good to know how "allergic" the wife is first - epipens are for anaphylaxis - I'm thinking if the allergy was that lethal, OP wouldn't be sitting on the TMMB asking for advice.
goose16,
Oct 13, 8:33pm
Whatever the degree of allergy get an Aspivenin kit for the bites. www.biteandsting.co.nz Seek advice from council about the hive.
lyl_guy,
Oct 13, 8:47pm
Have you told the neighbour your worries about the bees and your wife? What did they say?
lovelurking,
Oct 13, 8:47pm
Bees will not “attack”just because you are there, they sting to defend themselves. FYI. Honey is the best thing to put on a bee sting.
Are they really swarming ie making a new home, or are they just being busy being bees? 🐝🍯🐝🍯🐝🍯🐝🍯🐝🍯🐝🍯
oh_hunnihunni,
Oct 13, 9:56pm
Seeing it means they die eviscerated, no bee wants to sting.
My husband was serious allergic to bee venom, but we kept bees for years and were never stung. Last sting I got from one of mine was because I startled a bee on a flower and got jabbed on the lip - vicious pain till I got inside to the honey jar, lol. I now check flowers before I stick my silly face in them!
gilligee,
Oct 14, 12:03am
We have two hives on our boundary and hives over the road opposite the house. This gives all our fruit trees great pollination so we get excellent crops. Never have any problem and never see the bees inside the house.
tweake,
Oct 14, 5:20am
the direction the hive is facing makes no difference to the bees flight path. what makes a difference is obstacles they need to fly around or over. so having a hive wit ha tall solid fence between it and the house will force the bees to go up over it and be well over your head height.
tweake,
Oct 14, 5:23am
worth next to nothing these days. you can buy a full hive with multiple boxes on it for half that price. plenty of beekeepers are calling it quits.
oh_hunnihunni,
Oct 14, 5:43am
Exactly. The OP mentioned a fence. I'm suggesting pointing the entrance in the other direction might have an ameliorating effect. For the OP. ;-)
oh_hunnihunni,
Oct 14, 5:45am
Sadly.
But the cost of maintaining a hive has increased markedly over the good old days.
tweake,
Oct 14, 7:23am
while changing the hive direction may make it look like they are doing something, it makes it worse for the beehive as the keep going back to the old hive entrance location and can get a bit snarky because they are now "lost".
what size fence matters a lot. a simple thing as increasing fence height and fitting shade cloth can help. or simply move them to a better position.
not sure why you mention maintenance cost as that has absolutely nothing to do with the price of hives/nucs/swarm. i would not call them "good old days" as the good honey prices (and consequently hives prices) has only been a more recent event. never had good prices back in the old days.
les6,
Oct 17, 2:45am
i think she means keeping up with the vaaroa treatments?
oh_hunnihunni,
Oct 17, 3:48am
She does. Bearing in mind our hives were pre varoa.
And were swarm sourced.
I watched a beekeeper move a hive six feet in the late afternoon, and the small swarm that hung at the original location never found it, and eventually just flew off into the beyond. I have always wondered how or if they survived. But I have moved a hive around on the spot, so the entrance was facing a tall hedge. The bees didn't seem to mind, and the washing line that had been in the flight line earlier was a lot cleaner afterwards.
Lovely creatures, bees. I spend many happy hours these days watching the neighbours population returning home against the trees in the early evening. And benefit from their work, my small group of sweet peas are magnificent this year.
tweake,
Sep 20, 5:02am
the point is maintenance price has nothing to with hive sale price. prices went up because of the huge demand for hives and now the market has crashed hive prices are much lower. the days of selling nucs/swarms for $600 are long gone.
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