Subject: Keeping Bees in the City

From: [email-masked] (William A Carpenter)
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 16:04:28

I have been reading about keeping bees for years, but never have had a good 
location to have my own hives.  Reading this newsgroup is encouraging me to go 
ahead and keep bees anyway.  I live in a small city in Oregon.  Does anyone 
have any pointers on keeping bees in a residential area?  Thanks!

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From: [email-masked] (Rick Hough)
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 13:45:50 -0500

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked]

> have any pointers on keeping bees in a residential area?  Thanks!

Here are my thoughts:

1) provide some sort of fence/obstruction, possibly a hedge or something
similar, to force the bees to fly up before they leave your property - if
the bees are above head level, few people will notice them. The real trick
is to locate the hives so that the flight path doesn't create a problem.
Placing hives with a flight path across a busy sidewalk is not wise. The
obstruction described above helps in a tight space by raising the flight
path high enough to avoid problems.

2) The less visible your hives are, the better. Vandalism can be a problem.
Don't know why, but kids seem to enjoy throwing rocks at bee hives......
Also, the less obtrusive the colonies are, the less likely you are to
distress your neighbors.

3) speaking of neighbors, a jar of honey is a very valuable tool of
diplomacy!

4) Provide a water source for your bees. Bees need water, and they *will*
seek it out. Often times, the closest water source is a neighbor's
swimming pool. This often leads to distraught neighbors!

5) just to be safe, I would discretely check for any local ordinances. I
don't
think that restrictive ordinances relative to bees are widespread, but they
do exist.

6) Join a local beekeeping club!  They can provide you with the best local
info.

I know of several urban beekeepers who do quite well, so don't let your
"lack of location" deter you any longer! Your location is probably better
than you realize.

****************************************************
* Rick Hough             * email: [email-masked] *
* TASC                   * Phone: (617) 942-2000   *
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From: [email-masked] (Donald Bowen)
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 14:53:58 GMT

>have any pointers on keeping bees in a residential area?  Thanks!

	A beekeeper in Spokane kept his is a backyard.  He placed the
hives in front of a tall fence with the entrance facing the fence forcing
the bees to climb to higher altitudes.  He said that this tended to
disperse the bees and kept neighbors from bothering him.

	In San Diego, bees must be kept 600 feet from a neighbors house.

	DonB

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From: [email-masked] (Wendy Seltzer)
Date: 22 Apr 1994 22:11:35 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
>have any pointers on keeping bees in a residential area?  Thanks!

I have had a beehive in my backyard in a New York suburb for about 8 
years now and have never had any problems with neighbors.  (Though one 
woman swore for a while that the yellowjackets around her house came from 
my hive!  She was placated by a jar of honey, though.)  The hive was 
basically hidden from view from the street by a hemlock hedge, so many 
people didn't even notice it.  If you are close to neighbors, some sort 
of obstacle in front of the hive, as others have suggested to make the 
bees fly up quickly, is probably a good idea (we had a swingset for a 
while).

Wendy

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From: [email-masked] (Phil Veldhuis)
Date: 21 Apr 1994 23:15:40 GMT

Well, if your really want to know if it is ok to keep bees in your
neighborhood, phone up the local council/gov or whatever, and say:
"My Neighbor has Bees, what can I do to make him/her get rid of them"

If the answer is:  "nothing" then go to it.

If the anser is: "only if they sting you or something then take the right
precautions.

When I was in europe, I saw lots of urban beekeepers who keep hives
illegally in the city by keeping the hives in small garden sheds or
garages and the bottomboard had an entrance that lead to a hole in the wall.

Like this:				wall		
					|
				______	|
				|    |	|	
				|    |	|
				|____|=====tube to entrance	
				hive	|		
					|	

I think they had openings in windows or something to let out bees who
escaped while the hive was open (to put supers on etc).  A hole under the
eve should do the trick. 

This also protects your hives from vandalism.

In general, out of sight out of mind.

Good luck to you!
-- 
------------oooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo-------------
Phil Veldhuis           |  "if something is not worth doing, 
Winnipeg. MB, Canada    |  it is not worth doing right"
[email-masked] |                     Dave Barry (1985)