Beehives in neighbours garden

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Moved into a new house. I am unable to see the neighbours garden due to the layout. I discovered a few weeks after moving in they have two beehives. Already I have seen two massive swarms of bees. Thousands of them for two days. Had to close all the windows and doors. If you've never seen a swarm before it can be terrifying when it's right by your house.

The small pond has around fifty around it at any given time. Already I'm thinking having a medium sized padding pool up for the kids is going to be a no-no as I'd rather not have dozens of bees hovering about using it as a water source.

Also, the woman told my DH that they get irritated by noise and that on one occasion when their son shouted something, her husband was stung a dozen noise. Where the beehives are is metres away from a children's play area to was insitu when we moved in. Already although my child is a baby I'd be terrified of letting her play down that area where the swings are as all young children can make loud unpredictable noises from time to time. Oh she also told me that we would need to get rid of a tree as it attracts bees.

My nextdoor neighbour has three hives up against our fence. Previous owners of our house put three large fence panels along the fence when the bees are which directs the bees higher up into the air so they more or less fly over our garden. Honey bees don't usually go to flowers close to the hive - they usually fly further away so we don't often see them in our garden- they do use the bird bath to stop for a drink but that's in the front garden where the kids can't reach. I personally wouldn't have a pond with young kids, and the bees will seek out a water supply so you might want to get rid of the pond as this will reduce the number of bees coming into your garden.

I have very active, noisy kids (3 &1) neither have ever been stung by anything in the garden. I have been stung once but the poor bee landed on my head for a rest when I was standing close to the hive (talking to my neighbour over the fence) and it got caught up in my hair - we have been living next to bees for 9 years and that's the only time.

Swarms can be quite intimating when you first see them but they only seem to do it once a year (per hive) so once it's done that seems to be it for the year.

I always understood swarming bees were quite docile, and, I believe quite valuable! Who does the swarming belong to? Could you flog it to a beekeeper? On bee-bay?

Also, let's hear some more love for wasps, also pollinate and eat garden pests too. Only really a nuisance in late summer when they become sugar junkies.

We've got bumblebees nesting behind an airbrick. Can hear them buzzing as they come and go. It's quite restful.

It sounds like your neighbour is trying to get in early with you and get a tree cut down and your children afraid to make noise 😩 I would just be friendly and ignore her ‘advice’ and not fall prey to her plan to use her bees to keep you in line!

Thank you, I will remember to come back to this post and try this when I get the pool out if it's a problem

I thought the pond was in the neighbours garden?

Thank you for the heads up!! I did not consider this but I think you may be right.

It is quite scarey to be under a swarm, and I always leave them to get on with it. In my old garden the bee keeper would come and get them as soon as they settled as they were worth a fair amount to him to sell. If they settled in our garden he'd give us a free jar of honey which was absolutely delicious. He had many hives, around 20 feet from our garden, and neither myself or my OH have ever been stung. In fact I've been a gardener as a job myself, and have had gardens, allotments etc for over a decade and the only time I've even been stung is when I put my hand on a bee in a shop. About 45 years ago.

In our new house we have no hives nearby but we have more bees, many of them are solitary bees and just spend their time buzzing about looking for holes. I have one that flies round my potting shed, always in the same circle, landing on anything that looks like it might be a hole, and then buzzing out again. Back 10 mins later. Round and round. All day long.

I was going to say exactly this. Sounds more like those yellow and black hover flies if that’s what they are doing.

.I would not like this . Bees are lovely yes but would not want them living next door. Maybe speak to the beekeeping association or the council.

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Beekeepers go to great lengths to stop their bees swarming, they lose their bees if this happens. We are in the middle of swarm season. If thr swarm you saw was from your neighbour's bees they would 100% have been knocking on your door to retrieve them.

Most bees don't forage close to their hive, so there's a good chance the bees in your garden are from different hives. I keep bees in my not-very-large garden and have never had an issue with them being around the dc's play stuff, because of this fact.

Bees will seek out water sources - this is easily solved by providing a water source close to the hive and you could speak to your neighbour about putting out a dish of water.

I do wonder if you are unfairly holding the neighbour's bees responsible for every bee or wasp you see in your garden.

Also - all the people suggesting speaking to the "beekeeping association" - you know that the bbka is a voluntary group made up of beekeepers? They will be supportive of people keeping bees!

I love bees, plant loads of bee-friendly stuff in my garden, and quite liked the idea of keeping a couple of hives until I looked into it and found it was quite complicated.

But my DSS has neighbours who have bees, and has had to give up having barbecues because on two occasions, the bees have swarmed and everyone's had to go inside, but not before a few people had been stung. On another occasion, he came in from gardening in the front garden and found his kitchen full of them. They'd come in through the open back door.

He's quite the eco-warrior and very laid back, but even he feels that a housing estate in the middle of Brighton is maybe not the ideal place to keep them.

You are completely overreacting. We need bees for a healthy environment. They travel to collect nectar so whether they are being kept 20 feet away or 200 yards makes very little difference. My dad kept bees in our tiny terraced garden in South London (despite me being allergic to bee stings!). I don't think our neighbours even noticed.

He was also a designated 'swarm collector' for the local area. If anyone reported a swarm of bees to the local council he could be contacted to go and collect it. It's an easy enough task for someone with the right tools and experience. A swarm of bees can be sold on for profit.

Some species of bees can be more aggressive than others but these are unlikely to be kept domestically.

And?

Its the Neighbours Property.

This is why when buying a new house you are supposed to check for anything potentially problematic when you purchase.

I don't get what you want for your post apart from whinging.

Are you looking to kick off with the neighbour or to be a right pain in the arse and be the difficult neighbour who puts in complaints left right and centre.

Its bees. We need bees.

We keep bees in our garden but there are certain precautions that we take to reduce the risk of them being a nuisance. These include being extra careful with swarm prevention, putting high hedges or fences around the hive to encourage the bees to fly high through neighbouring gardens, providing water for themselves, limiting how mqny hives we have, ensuring we have calm, non aggressive bees (moving hives and introducing calm queens when needed), and giving our neighbours honey when we harvest it! The paddling pool should be ok as bees prefer slightly stagnant water. Shouting shouldn't be an issue. We did have a few issues when neighbours cut back a hedge that had been acting as a barrier but we've got a back up plan to move them to another site if they cause a nuisance. I don't think keeping bees in urban gardens is necessarily a problem but I think there is more your neighbours could do to avoid causing a nuisance. As pp have said swarms are generally very calm but they can be worrying for people who don't know this.

My grandfather used to keep bees, and I played in their garden most summers, shouting and running around, as kids do. Was never once stung. Your neighbour sounds bonkers though, that could be a much bigger problem than the bees.

Our neighbours have a couple of beehives. We do have quite a lot of bees in the garden, more than I suspect we would probably have without the hives, but we've never been stung and they focus entirely on the plants and flowers. In warm weather I often sit out in the garden and even while gardening and weeding around the plants they're on they never bother me at all. I think they prefer to keep out of human's way if they can - not like wasps!

You are right to be concerned about the paddling pool though, we have a water bath for the birds and the bees often congregate around that.

Unfortunately I do not hold the gift of being psychic

As I understand it swarms are an occasional thing, certainly not on a weekly basis or anything like that, think it’s when a new Queen hatches and flies off to start own colony, or something. Anyway, if you leave them alone they’ll leave you alone. And I speak as someone who is not keen on creepy crawling/flying beasties.

to be fair, you could have checked out neighbours garden before committing to the move. Really not their problem. Wouldn’t touch the tree though.

fwiw I had to walk through a swarm the other day - it was covering a road towards the end of a 6 mile walk and I didn't much fancy turning around and going back the way I came. I assumed they were honey bees as I could see a collection of hives in the field nearby.

I've never seen such a big swarm so whilst I am not scared of bees, it did give me cause to pause and build up my courage.

I walked slowly through (with the dog who was low enough he was out of the worst of the swarm) and was genuinely surprised and greatly impressed by how this swarm slowly parted to give me space to move through it.

I was prepared for a few bees to bump off me, as their movements can seem so erratic to humans. But not a single one did. Instead, I was given 30-50cm space at all times.

It was mad and rather lovely, in the end.

Thank you for this.

Wow you're braver than me! Interesting to know their reaction!

I genuinely didn't think asking to see a neighbours garden was a thing when viewing a house.

Not brave. Just too lazy to go back 5.5 miles

What do you want them to do? Get rid of the hives because you don’t like them?

When my autistic son sees a swarm already I am worried he will be terrified.

Then turn it into a positive. This is a chance to not impart your fear of them into him and perhaps he can learn about them instead. Bees are, after all, amazing.

We’ve got a nest of a type of bumblebee (not the same, I know) in a bird box on the side of our house. Occasionally one trundles in and I guide him back out. They’re hum is pleasant and reminds me that nature is fucking amazing.

I’d much rather hear the hum of bees than of cars.

We also have a hornets nest. They’re not at all aggressive and I guide them out too. everything has its place in this world.