# My neighbours are upset about bees



## Pugs (Jul 15, 2004)

I'm getting my first bees next year. I'm putting a fence up this fall/winter. I'm just not telling my neighbors. One is allergic to yellow jackets and carries an Epipen. Another is just scared of them and says she is allergic, but she has never been to the hospital nor does she carry an Epipen. If they find out, well there is nothing illegal about it here. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Pugs


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## magnet-man (Jul 10, 2004)

My neighbors have called animal control so much I have lost count. I am within the city ordinance for keeping bees. Animal control has told me they wish that my nosy neighbors would find something else to do.

I did casually mention to one neighbor that I was thinking of moving because of the complaints. He asked when I was thinking of selling my house. I told him I wasnt. I was going to turn it into section 8 housing. Told him the state would guarantee the rent and that it was a no lose situation for me. Strange, my neighbors are a lot friendlier and I havent had a visit from animal control since. 

Not a bad way to handle the neighbors when they know you have the means to do it.


[This message has been edited by magnet-man (edited August 22, 2004).]


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

My policy has always been to not tell them. By the time they notice the bees have already been there six months to a year and they didn't realize it. Reality is so much better than their imagination that they get used to it. You can always build a six foot fence around the hive and some small outbuilding and they won't see it and the bees will get some altitude before they leave.


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## Daisy (Jul 24, 2003)

Well this makes me think about something....

When I moved back to the city house, I had the option in bringing at least one or two hives up here to put on my deck just outside the french doors, just to be able to sit out there and visit with them like in the good ole days but....

I decided not too. I decided to leave them at the farm because really and truly with all the mowers here and pesticides being sprayed on these techy yards, it would spell more disease and doom for the colony. I didn't feel it was worth the effort. 

If I couldn't keep the bees in a small town or in the country, I'd not bother having them at all... I mean, how many feral hives are there in a big city? I haven't seen very many at all...

It's not a bee friendly place. 

And I don't like living in the city. 

[This message has been edited by Daisy (edited August 23, 2004).]


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## magnet-man (Jul 10, 2004)

I do have a 6 foot fence around my yard. Both houses next to me have raised decks and can look down into my yard.


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## Hillbillynursery (Nov 13, 2003)

Ah the perks of having the bees out in the county. I have told one neighbor where they can go but bees are not our main problem. I think they were just trying to find some grounds to get back at me. The other neighbors could careless. And I have a few not so close neighbors wanting me to keep more bees so their farms will get better pollenation. My mother is sensitive to bee stings so no aggressive bees can be kept by me. But we all seem to get a bad hive from time to time, so we requeen and go on. I like the don't tell aproach followed by a screen.


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## Guest (Aug 23, 2004)

In my current yard I haven't told anyone I have a hive. The problem is that the new yard is so small I could screen the hive but the neighbours are so close they would see the bees as they leave the hive.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>(the city) It's not a bee friendly place. 

I've found it to be the other way around most of the time. Farmers tend to have crops dusted by plane and that tends to kill all the bees. Some neighbor sprays their yard and it tends to only kill a few. The city tends to have a more constant nectar flow from people planting flowers and flowering trees and watering and tending them. The country tends to have more sudden strong flows from fields of alfalfa or soybeans and sudden dearths when they cut the alfalfa or the beans are done blooming.

I would say I think my bees did as well or better in town except Mitchell Ne which would fog for mosquitoes in the middle of the afternoon.


[This message has been edited by Michael Bush (edited August 23, 2004).]


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## thebeesknees (Apr 27, 2004)

I live in the suburbs of Washington, DC. You can't get more suburban than my neigborhood.

I just started beekeeping this spring. I placed the hive in the far corner of the yard, as far away from the neighbors houses as possible. It's tucked into a place where there is a tree and a shed and some honeysuckle vines. Having said that, it's still planely visible from certain angles.

When I was deciding to do this, I thought about telling the neighbors. But I decided against it. I'm within my legal rights, and I didn't want to risk having someone object, because I would then be putting the hive up in spite of those objections, which seems more unneigborly. I'd rather be accused of not letting folks know, then letting them know and doing it anyway.

The neighbors haven't complained, but if they do, I'll have to tell them to go climb a tree, 'cause the hive is staying. In fact, I'm setting up two more next year!

As for the pestiside problem, I haven't had any problems so far. Besides, I'm very sad to say that when you talk to most people around here about air-delivered pestisides, the concern is about when (not if) terrorists deliver a dirty bomb that kills people, not insects. It's like walking around with a bulls-eye on your head.


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## salt lake buzz (Jul 3, 2004)

When I brought the first hive home, I kept it hidden to avoid the gripes. When I brought the next two home, I put em right out in the open in the garden. From all indications.. I'm that strange neighbor with the mean dog, the one that nobody looks at or talks to, which suits me fine. I work nights from 530 to 6, so the fewer interuptions to my sleep, the better. They don't even complain when I play my music loud in the middle of the night any more. I now consider the bees to not only be producing honey for me, they are also guarding my peace.


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## 3BeeKeepers (Aug 20, 2004)

Our neighbours as well were complaining about our hives as well. To the point that the City actually came down and were going to remove them. 

I went to the Lawyer, and have found out that under a grandfather clause states that you can have bees in any yard providing that the yard is fenced and they have to fly over a 6 ft fence. With this your neighbours pending if you like them or not, cannot say anying, or do anything legally.

I spend a year fighting this and have actually added more hives in protest.

Good Luck.

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3BeeKeepers


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Probably it's wise to see if there are any convenents or laws that could put you in the wrong legally. But if there is no other contraint try this:

If you can find somewhere else to put them here's what I would do. Move a hive to the new house for a week. Then in the middle of the night move it to your other location and put an empty hive in it's place. Wait for the police or animal control to show up when the neighbors complain about how many bees are in their yard (which shouldn't take long since bees are everywhere and they are not watching for them) and show them your empty hive with no bees in it. Welcome them to look around for another source for the bees and a couple of weeks after that move your hive back to the backyard.


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## Beetime (May 13, 2004)

I agree with Michael and if they happen to be smart enough to come back and check it again, you can always act surprised and say they must be wild and must of moved in on their own...LOL


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## JReece (May 27, 2004)

I told my closest neighbor I was getting 2 hives in the spring and he said " only 2? "
Apparantly he was a beekeeper way back in his day. I got lucky. 
If I were you as you have already dug yourself a hole with the neighbors. 
Try getting them to come over to your existing house to observe the bees. Possibly it will spark the same interest that got us all into this fascinating hobby.
Laying on the charm will get you everywhere. 
They probably think you are a freek for having bees at this point. You need to give them the opportunity to get to know you. Before bringing your hives to them.


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## hrogers (Dec 16, 2000)

Howdy All --

In my work with a branch of our Govt, we
have a slogan -- It's easier to get forgiveness than to get permission ! So don't ask unless you want the wrong answer.

Doc


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## BULLSEYE BILL (Oct 2, 2002)

>-- It's easier to get forgiveness than to get permission !

For sure. Now that I am homeless, (townhouse life), I do not have any bees in town. I did not ask my neighbors at my last home, good thing too. One was my sister, she was ok, the other was "alergic" and terrified to death.

We can not have bees in the city during the summer months legally. I did overwinter three hives and two gums. I had as many as twenty, mostly swarms and removals, in April and June. 

Interestingly enough, the city bees put up more honey and faster than the ones at the farm. When I moved them out in July they were seven and eight mediums high. There is much more forage in the city than in the country before and after the main flow.


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## burtja (Aug 24, 2004)

I painted my hives green and planted sunflowers and tall wildflowers in a bed just in front of the hives...no one's noticed at all. I have 6 in my back yard.

Good luck...It's a shame so many folks are so ignorant about bees.

burt


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## JohnBeeMan (Feb 24, 2004)

I guess fogging with FGMO is out of the question for these small bee yards.

By the time I fog 4 hives, there is a cloud floating up and through my large oak trees. It looks like something out of a Steven King movie. I am sure any close-in neighbors would have a panic attack. My closest neighbor's home is over 600 feet away and he use to keep bees.


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## Daisy (Jul 24, 2003)

MB and Bullseye....

"really"?

You say you put up more honey in town then in the country? 

Well, I'll be dipped..


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## Martha (Feb 14, 2004)

I live in the heart of Kansas City - just east of downtown. Being an old neighborhood (my house is 100 yrs old) the city didn't have building codes - so the houses are not very far apart. Just a driveway width on each side.

I wish I could drawn a picture where I have my hives. Their backs to the west with Forsythia bushes behind them (about 3 ft), to the south my garage (tiny model T size), the the north a chain link fence and a baby Red Bud Tree, (my neighbor has a pit bull chained to the tree - she's my buddy), to the east I put a single sheet of lattice with raspberry and blackberry bushes growing. This lattice makes the bees fly up.

I painted my hives and the lattice the main color of my house.

Now, I have problems with my neighbors to the south - they deal drugs and pee in their yard, my yard through the chain link and even have come up my driveway. Since I have had my bees, I have not had to yell or send out my dog while they pee. It was so nice to be sitting at the dining room table watching a drunk high idiot pee outside the window.

I also have lots o' honey for my 1st year.

We keep hoping the trashman will take the house next door....never does.

I also did not check with city hall. Animal control has more than its share to worry about in the city than my little ladies keeping me safe.

I do know that some newer neighborhood/subdivisions do not allow the bees. 

I like Michael's idea.

Martha


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>MB and Bullseye....
"really"?
>You say you put up more honey in town then in the country? 

Maybe it would be more accurate to say that I got a more consitently good honey crop in town. Sometimes in the country I got a better one and sometimes not. I think there is a more consistent flow in town even through droughts and such and less spraying for bugs than on crops. In town maybe someone sprays something in their garden now and then. But in the country they ariel spray the whole area.

>Well, I'll be dipped..
Probably.


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## Malcolm McNabb (Dec 30, 2002)

well i must be pretty lucky, sort of . We are sorrounded by a bunch of retirees and none of them have any problem with the bees.
In fact of the neighbors is so interested that she bought her own veil/hat,because she would be over when im in the hive and be out there with me till i told her she really needs a veil because of the possible sting to the eye ect..
she called us 1 evening just to tell me she got stung by a <rouge> bee and was so excited that she just had to tell me. Later her husband told me she was pestering them in the flowers trying to get it to walk on her , too funny mal


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## piccioni (Jul 8, 2003)

I had a neighbour who complained constantly because my budgie made too much noise for him.

I live on a farm now, but my advice would be check out the laws. Unless you are prohibited from beekeeping, make your decision based on whose company you value most: the neighbour or the bees.


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## magnet-man (Jul 10, 2004)

The bees!


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## Beemaninsa (Jun 9, 2004)

what piccioni said! Also a jar of honey left on a neighbors doorstep occationaly can sweeten sour neighbors.


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## magnet-man (Jul 10, 2004)

Piccioni, a budgie is a type of parakeet? Wow, and I thought my neighbors were bad!


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## DCH (Aug 30, 2004)

We moved one of three hives from our rural location to our home in the suburbs two years ago. Put it behind our shed, facing a wooded lot behind us.

Didn't tell the neighbors *but* we did visit them once we extracted the Spring/Summer honey and gave them each a bottle of the local honey. Nobody had any problems - and even a little curiosity about the bees.

Every once in a while, I'll ask the neighbor closest to the hives if he's had any problems that I should know about - especially since the flight paths for both hives (we started a second one this year) tend to go over his house...nothing to report.

We still drop off a bottle every year for them all - a small price to pay for good relations.

Cheers,
Doug


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

When they find out the bees have already been there a year when they get the honey, they seldom complain because there are no fears anticipating what it will be like to have bees next door, because they don't know until it's already happened and by then they realize they didn't notice any difference.


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## SilverFox (Apr 25, 2003)

Martha: Run a hot wire along the inside of your chain link on insoulators, then enjoy a laugh the next time a "stoner" pees thru the fence, urine is a great conductor of electricity-the salt ya know-find a used electric fence charger, the one used for pets would be just right.

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'WHEN WE CLOSE OUR EYES WE ALL LOOK THE SAME' GWPW 03


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## magnet-man (Jul 10, 2004)

We had a dog used to lift its leg on the side of the house right next to the back door. We ran the fence wire there. That stopped the problem. When ever the dog heard the clicking of the electric fence box, he would run into the middle of the yard and just sit down.


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## SilverFox (Apr 25, 2003)

Or another Idea----just about as funny-----run seran wrap just about the same hight from post to post, they'll wonder why their feet and pant legs are wet------

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'WHEN WE CLOSE OUR EYES WE ALL LOOK THE SAME' GWPW 03


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